They keep trying to fool the American people.
The Congressional Budget Office’s findings reveal President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan could increase the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the coming decade, should the proposed programs become permanent.
But, on Monday, the CBO’s findings were discredited by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who referred to them as “a fake CBO score,” adding that the data was not based on the bill being voted on.
The latest figures are far more damaging than estimates the CBO made on November 18th. At the time, the CBO estimated that legislation would only increase the nation’s deficit by $160 billion in the next ten years.
But the opposition has been skeptical about these figures for some time.
Commenting on Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that if the temporary provisions of the bill were extended, the legislation would cost far more than what was expressed to the American people. He also said in his statement that he expects the Democrats to extend the temporary provisions since they had the votes to do it.
As reported by Fox News, the $1.7 trillion initiative – which was passed by the House of Representatives in November – included provisions for green tax credits, plans to establish universal preschool, and the expansion of Medicaid, while adding approximately $1.95 trillion in new taxes.
Commenting on CBOs finding, Chris Edwards, a tax policy director at Cato Institute, said that while CBO should be open to critique, he believed CBO projections were far more realistic than the “low-balled costs suggested by the Democrats.”
Edwards also added that since the Democrats were the ones imposing the permanent costs on taxpayers, Congress should establish the long-term costs.
Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, also countered Psaki’s criticism of the CBO rescore, saying it was not fake; it was merely hypothetical.
