Biden Still Falsely Claiming His Taxing And Spending Plans Somehow ‘Will Lower Your Costs And Lower The Deficit’

Multiple Independent Analyses Showed The Spending Spree Was Not Fully Paid For And Was Designed To Disguise Its Real Cost

Biden Repeatedly Asserted His Spending Spree ‘Does Not Increase The Debt’ And ‘Will Be Fully Paid For’

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: “This is not going to cost a single, solitary penny. We’re not going to increase the deficit by one cent in the Build Back Better plan at all.” (WHIO-TV, 12/14/2021)

PRESIDENT BIDEN: “There’s a lot that people don’t understand. And by the way, all this paid for. Every single penny. It’s not going to raise one single cent.” (CNN Presidential Town Hall With President Joe Biden, 10/21/2021)

• BIDEN:  “And it does not increase the debt. When you talk about the number — we shouldn’t even talk about the numbers, because it’s all paid for, written in the same piece of legislation.” (“Remarks by President Biden on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Build Back Better Agenda,” Scranton, PA, 10/20/2021)

• BIDEN: “And, by the way, you hear these numbers — $3.5 trillion or $1.75 trillion.  We pay for it all.  It doesn’t increase the deficit one single cent.” (“Remarks by President Biden on Build Back Better and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal,” Kearny, NJ, 10/25/2021)

Yet The Talking Point Claiming That Biden’s Multitrillion Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Spree Is Fully Paid For Or Costs Nothing Was Dubbed ‘The Lie Of The Year’

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “[President Biden’s tax and entitlement] plan’s advertised cost of $1.75 trillion over 10 years includes multiple budget gimmicks that disguise the real cost. The Penn Wharton Budget Model has scored the 10-year cost at about $4.6 trillion, but the White House keeps claiming against all evidence that the cost is ‘zero.’ Now comes the Congressional Budget Office to report that the claim of zero cost is a Big Con…. CBO has said the bill would add $200 billion to the deficit over 10 years.” (Editorial, “The Real Cost of Biden’s Spending Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/12/2021)

• “Enter Sens. Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn, who asked CBO director Phillip Swagel to add up the cost of the bill that recently passed the House if all of its programs were made permanent. This is a more honest accounting because Democrats admit both that they want to make the spending permanent and that they’ve adjusted programs to make them fit under the Senate budget rules so they can pass with a mere 51 votes … The 18 programs that Mr. Swagel itemizes in a table with his letter contribute $3.477 trillion over 10 years to the total cost of the House bill—compared with the $889 billion that Democrats claim those same programs cost under their gimmicky rules. Overall, Mr. Swagel says in his letter, CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation project that the House bill would increase the deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years without the budget gimmicks and phony phase-outs.” (Editorial, “The Real Cost of Biden’s Spending Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/12/2021)

• “Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer reacted furiously to this news, falling back on their claims that the Build Back Better Act is ‘fully paid for.’ Mrs. Pelosi says CBO has scored Mr. Graham’s ‘imaginary bill.’ But her bill is the real fiscal fantasy and ‘fully paid for’ is the lie of the year.” (Editorial, “The Real Cost of Biden’s Spending Plan,” The Wall Street Journal, 12/12/2021)

The Congressional Budget Office Determined In November That Democrats’ Massive Taxing-And-Spending Bill Was NOT Paid For, And Would Add $800 Billion To The Deficit Over The Next Five Years

“CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would result in a net increase in the deficit totaling $367 billion over the 2022-2031 period, not counting any additional revenue that may be generated by additional funding for tax enforcement.” (“Summary of Cost Estimate for H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/18/2021)

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the Democrats’ reckless taxing and spending bill would add nearly $800 billion to the deficit over the next five years. (“Summary of Cost Estimate for H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/18/2021)

And In December, Another CBO Analysis Showed That If The Provisions Of Democrats’ Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Spree Were Made Permanent, As Democrats Always Intended, The Full Cost Would Be $4.9 Trillion And It Would ‘Increase The Deficit By $3.0 Trillion’

BUDGET COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER RELEASE: “CBO confirmed the true cost of the bill is $4.9 trillion, and it adds $3 trillion in new debt.” (U.S. Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member, Press Release, 12/10/2021)

CBO: “This letter responds to your request for a projection of the budgetary effects, including the effects on interest costs, of a modified version of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act. You specified modifications that would make various policies permanent rather than temporary. The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation project that a version of the bill modified as you have specified would increase the deficit by $3.0 trillion over the 2022–2031 period.” (Phillip L. Swagel, Congressional Budget Office Director, Letter to Sen. Graham and Rep. Smith, 12/10/2021)

Other Nonpartisan Analyses Have Found That Making All These Provisions Permanent Would Nearly Double The Full Cost Of The Bill

PENN WHARTON BUDGET MODEL: “In an alternative, illustrative scenario in which all temporary provisions in H.R. 5376 are made permanent, spending would instead total $4.6 trillion over the 10-year budget window. In this scenario, by 2050 federal debt increase by 24.4 percent and GDP would fall by 2.9 percent relative to current law.” (“H.R. 5376, Build Back Better Act: Budget And Macroeconomic Effects,” Penn Wharton Budget Model, 11/15/2021)

COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: “Based on CBO’s score of the House-passed Build Back Better Act, this update of our prior analysis finds extensions would nearly double the cost of the bill from over $2.4 trillion to nearly $4.8 trillion. If all extensions were enacted without offsets, it would increase the deficit impact of the bill from $158 billion to $2.8 trillion.” (“A Permanent Build Back Better Act Could Cost $4.8 Trillion,” Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, 11/30/2021)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): ‘What I See Are Shell Games And Budget Gimmicks,’ ‘Do They Not Intend For Those Programs To Last The Full 10 Years?,’ ‘That Is [A] Recipe For Economic Crisis’

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): “[A]s more of the real details outlined in the basic framework are released, what I see are shell games and budget gimmicks that make the real cost of this so-called ‘$1.75 trillion dollar’ bill estimated to be twice as high if the programs are extended or made permanent. That is [a] recipe for economic crisis. None of us should ever misrepresent to the American people what the real cost of legislation is.” (Sen. Manchin, Press Conference, 11/01/2021)

• SEN. MANCHIN: “If we’re going to pick all of these things we want to do but one goes for three years, one goes for one year, and maybe one other one might go for the full 10 years. Do they not intend for those programs to last the full 10 years? Well if you intend for that to happen, what’s the real cost? Because we are either going to debt finance it, if we are not going to pay for it, or come back and change the tax code again to try to get the revenue.” (The Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, 12/07/2021)

Economists Explained That Biden’s Agenda Would ‘Act To Push Up Inflation’ And That ‘Biden Has Been Disingenuous’

The White House Incredibly Claimed That ‘No Economist Out There Is Projecting That This Will Have A Negative Impact On Inflation … And The Build Back Better Agenda Will Help Reduce Inflation’

REPORTER: “Why should Americans not be concerned that injecting another $1.75 trillion or more would further raise inflation?”
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JEN PSAKI: “Because no economist out there is projecting that this will have a negative impact on inflation. … That and the Build Back Better Agenda will help reduce inflation, will help cut costs for the American people over the long term.” (White House Press Briefing, 11/15/2021)

SENATE MAJORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “It’s very simple: if we want to create more jobs, if we want to fight inflation, if we want to help families lower costs—the best thing we can do is to pass Build Back Better. Let me repeat that: Want to fight inflation? Support Build Back Better!” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks, 11/16/2021)

In Fact, Economists Warned, ‘The Risk Of Fueling More Inflation When It Has Reached Record Highs Outweighs The Potential Benefits Of Passing A Big Spending Bill’

“[M]any researchers, including a forecasting firm that Mr. Biden often cites to support the economic benefits of his proposals, say the bill is structured in a way that could add to inflation next year, before prices have had time to cool off. Some economists and lawmakers worry about the timing, arguing that the risk of fueling more inflation when it has reached record highs outweighs the potential benefits of passing a big spending bill that could help to keep prices in check while addressing other social goals. Prices have picked up by 6.2 percent over the past year, the fastest pace in 31 years and far above the Federal Reserve’s inflation target.” (“The White House Says Its Plans Will Slow Inflation. The Big Question Is: When?,” The New York Times, 11/11/2021)

• “Many economists say it could create a short-term stimulus because the plan is structured to raise money gradually by taxing wealthier Americans, who are less likely to spend each additional dollar they have, and redistribute it quickly to people who earn less and are more likely to spend newfound cash. Because of the difference in timing between when the government spends money and when it starts to bring in more revenue, the bill is expected to pump money into the economy in its early years.” (“The White House Says Its Plans Will Slow Inflation. The Big Question Is: When?,” The New York Times, 11/11/2021)

• “Bank of America’s economics team said that core consumer prices would still rise at a 3.2 percent rate at the end of next year, incorporating the assumption that Mr. Biden’s plan passes. Adding a few tenths of a percent to already high inflation might feel more meaningful, moving price gains farther from the Fed’s 2 percent goal.” (“The White House Says Its Plans Will Slow Inflation. The Big Question Is: When?,” The New York Times, 11/11/2021)

• “The roughly $2 trillion tax and spending bill being championed by President Joe Biden will act to push up inflation next year if passed by Congress. That’s according to three senior economists -- Mark Zandi at Moody’s Analytics, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum and Harvard University professor Doug Elmendorf -- who appeared on a virtual panel sponsored by the National Association for Business Economics on Wednesday.” (“Top Economists See Biden’s Spending Plan Adding to Inflation,” Bloomberg, 11/17/2021)

STEVEN RATTNER, Former Obama Administration Counselor to the Treasury Secretary: “[I]nflation worries are top of voters’ minds. So the [Biden] administration should come clean with voters about the impact of its spending plans on inflation. Build Back Better can be deemed ‘paid for’ only if one embraces budget gimmicks, like assuming that some of the most important initiatives will be allowed to expire in just a few years. The result: a package that front-loads spending while tax revenues arrive only over a decade. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the plan would likely add $800 billion or more to the deficit over the next five years, exacerbating inflationary pressures.” (Steven Rattner, Op-Ed, “I Warned the Democrats About Inflation,” The New York Times, 11/16/2021)

• RATTNER: “The Biden administration needs to shift its approach. In particular, with the economy steaming along, it should make deficit reduction as important as its other initiatives. (Smaller deficits reduce net spending by government, thus helping offset demand by consumers.) But here again, Mr. Biden has been disingenuous. His Build Back Better plan claims to be deficit neutral, but that assertion is made credible only by using the fuzziest math. Over the first five years, the plan would add about $750 billion to the deficit, according to an analysis of the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates. With this year’s fiscal gap estimated at $1.3 trillion, any new version of the plan should reduce the deficit substantially in its early years using honest math.” (Steve Rattner, Op-Ed, “Biden Keeps Blaming the Supply Chain for Inflation. That’s Dishonest.,” The New York Times, 2/17/2021)

Even an analysis by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics found the implementation of Democrats’ multitrillion dollar taxing and spending bill would increase inflation annual growth from 3.8 to 4.0 in 2022. (“Macroeconomic Consequences of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act & Build Back Better Framework,” Moody’s Analytics, 11/04/2021)

• “Moody’s Analytics — the firm that the White House typically cites when arguing in favor of its legislation — estimates that the government will spend $163 billion more on the package than it takes in next year. And the redistribution could make the money more potent as economic stimulus.” (“The White House Says Its Plans Will Slow Inflation. The Big Question Is: When?,” The New York Times, 11/11/2021)

JASON FURMAN, Former Obama Administration Council of Economic Advisors Chairman and Harvard Economist: “It’s more likely a small positive for inflation in 2022…” (“The White House Says Its Plans Will Slow Inflation. The Big Question Is: When?,” The New York Times, 11/11/2021)

DOUG ELMENDORF, Former Director of the Congressional Budget Office and Harvard Economist: “That will tend to push up GDP and employment and inflation -- which is not the policy impulse we need right now.” (“Top Economists See Biden’s Spending Plan Adding to Inflation,” Bloomberg, 11/17/2021)

ETHAN HARRIS, Head of Global Economics Research at Bank of America: “It will make the labor market even hotter and create even more price pressure.” (“The Rethinking of Bidenomics,” Bloomberg, 10/22/2021)

And Americans Didn’t Believe Democrats’ Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Bill Would Ease Inflation Either

“Americans … don't see Democrats' signature legislation as addressing their top economic concern — inflation…. In the late November NPR/Marist poll, respondents said their top economic concern was inflation, but in this survey, people were pessimistic that either the infrastructure or social safety net bills would help curb it…. By a 46% to 42% margin, respondents said they were pessimistic it would help people like them.” (“A New Poll Finds Major Warning Signs For Biden And Fellow Democrats,” NPR, 12/09/2021)