Build Back Makes Bankruptcy
CONGRESS
CBO: Fully extended reconciliation bill could cost $3 trillion
Dems have proposed many programs to be temporary, but costs would
soar if they became permanent, according to the budget agency.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, left, who requested the CBO analysis, says
the agency “has provided a true cost of the bill over ten years,”
but Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer says Graham's request
was "nothing more than a partisan attempt to mislead the public."
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
By David Lerman
Posted December 10, 2021 at 12:46pm, Updated at 2:19pm
The Democratic tax and spending package to expand the social
safety net and combat climate change would increase federal deficits
by $3 trillion over 10 years if most programs were made permanent,
the Congressional Budget Office said Friday.
Republicans seized on the new cost estimate to argue that the
Democrats’ reconciliation measure is unaffordable and would only
accelerate rising inflation.
“I am urging the Democratic party to stop the madness,” said
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Senate Budget Committee’s
ranking Republican, who requested the cost estimate from the non-
partisan budget agency along with his House counterpart, Rep. Jason
Smith, R-Mo.
Graham and Smith, using CBO figures, estimated the gross cost
of the package would come to $4.9 trillion over a decade, assuming
all programs were made permanent without additional revenue or sav-
ings. That price tag would be more than double the roughly $2.2
trillion estimate of costs for new spending and tax breaks in the
House-passed bill, before offsets.
The Democratic reconciliation bill, as passed by the House,
would increase deficits by $231 billion over 10 years, after ac-
counting for spending for increased tax enforcement and interest
costs on the debt, the nonpartisan budget agency said. To keep costs
down, Democrats called for many of their programs to be temporary
— particularly the child tax credit, which would expire in a year.
And some programs would take years to get started.
But if those programs were made permanent, the CBO said, costs
would soar, increasing deficits in the first decade by more than $3
trillion, under a set of assumptions requested by Republican law-
makers.
Much of the cost increase comes from extending the expanded
child tax credit, which provides most families with up to $3,600 per
child annually, which households can opt to receive in monthly in-
stallments.
As passed by the House, the one-year expanded credit would cost
$185 billion. But if extended over the decade, as Democrats say they
want to do eventually, the cost jumps to nearly $1.6 trillion.
Similarly, child care subsidies and universal preschool programs,
which would expire after 2027 in the House bill, would cost $381
billion over 10 years. But if they are made permanent, the cost
jumps to $752 billion, the CBO said.
“Nobody believes these programs were going to end,” Graham said
at a news conference he held to call attention to the CBO report.
“They'll never go away if you leave it up to the Democratic Party.”
The estimate from the nonpartisan budget agency came on the same
day the Labor Department reported that the consumer price index rose
by 6.8 percent over the 12 months ending in November, the highest
increase since June 1982.
“It is unthinkable that Senate Democrats would try to respond to
this inflation report by ramming through another massive socialist
spending package in a matter of days,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell said in a statement Friday.
Democrats have denied that their reconciliation bill would spur
inflation, saying the programs in it are fully paid for with tax
increases on corporations and upper-income households, along with
increased tax enforcement and prescription drug cost savings. And
they said it would actually reduce deficits by $2 trillion in the
second decade since many programs would expire but the tax increases
and drug savings would remain in place.
They have acknowledged wanting to extend the life of many pro-
grams, particularly the expanded child tax credit, but have said the
costs of any future spending would be offset with new revenue or
savings, as President Joe Biden has promised.
In a statement Friday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer
called the new analysis a “fake CBO score” that doesn’t take into
account Democratic commitments to offset any costs of future exten-
sions. He said Graham’s request was “nothing more than a partisan
attempt to mislead the public.”
Graham, at his news conference, trained his focus on the one
Senate Democrat considered most likely to block the reconciliation
package from passing: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III, who has
called for a “pause” and expressed concerns about spurring more
inflation. Graham said he talked with Manchin Friday morning to
discuss the new CBO report.
“Joe Manchin, I believe, will listen to the facts,” Graham said.
Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.
We have had the worst administration in history working to
destroy our nation.
Time for prayer and unity within the more moral and ethical
part of our country.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 