12.13.21

CBO Once Again Exposes Democrats’ Budgeting Scam

A New Analysis Of From The Congressional Budget Office Cuts Through Democrats’ Accounting Fictions By Showing That Their Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Spree Would Cost A Staggering $4.9 Trillion Over A Decade, If Programs Democrats Have Said They Have No Intention Of Letting Expire Are Made Permanent

 

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “As a Democratic Senator explained last month, the reckless taxing and spending spree is full of ‘shell games’ and ‘budget gimmicks’ meant to mask the pain it would cause our country. Democrats want permanent new entitlements. To create a fake lower price tag, their bill pretends much of the spending would stop in a few years. To be clear, Democrats do not claim this would actually happen. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just announced that if you ignore this fake accounting and admit the spending would continue, Democrats’ reckless taxing and spending spree would actually cost a staggering $4.9 trillion in the first decade alone. It would balloon deficits by $3 trillion in just 10 years. This red ink tsunami would be irresponsible at any time. During the worst inflation in almost 40 years, it would be insane. The same Democrats who falsely promised this bill would cost $0 now say they would offset future extensions, so nobody should worry. It’s comical. Either this plan would explode our debt or Democrats intend to raise taxes by trillions and trillions more than they’re admitting, beyond the massive tax hikes in the bill. It was clear yesterday and it’s even clearer today: Washington Democrats must not force through their gigantic, reckless taxing and spending spree.” (Sen. McConnell, Press Release, 12/10/2021)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member: “So I’m calling on Democrats to stop Build Back Better. The evidence is in. The jury has reached a decision. The programs created by Build Back Better cost $4.9 trillion not $1.75 trillion. Do not sell a lie to the American people. It is a lie to say that these programs cost $1.75 trillion, because it’s a lie to believe they’ll sunset. It’s a lie to say that Build Back Better adds $365 billion to the deficit over ten years. The truth is it adds $3 trillion to the deficit. So I want the American people to understand that Build Back Better as written is a lie.” (Sen. Graham, Press Conference, 12/10/2021)

  • SEN. GRAHAM: “$1.75 trillion misrepresents the cost of this bill. It’s not $365 billion to the deficit, it’s $3 trillion. And all I did was ask CBO to score the bill in light of reality. And reality, ladies and gentlemen, these programs won’t go away after one year, two years and three years. They’ll never go away. And when you look at the cost of these programs over 10 years, it blows a hole in the budget. It is a completely different bill than being marketed and I’m hoping that sanity will prevail. That a handful of Democrats will say now is not the time to add $3 trillion to the deficit. Now is not the time to pass a bill that is $4.9 trillion in scope that will make it harder to produce American energy. I’m hoping and praying that we can shelve Build Back Better and continue to work in a bipartisan fashion.” (Sen. Graham, Press Conference, 12/10/2021)

 

A New Congressional Budget Office Analysis Shows That If The Provisions Of Democrats’ Reckless Taxing-And-Spending Spree Were Made Permanent, As Democrats Intend, 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)

 

Democrats Have Repeatedly Explained That They Want To Make The Massive New Spending Programs They Plan To Create Permanent


“Progressives argued for preserving as many of the proposal’s policies as possible, while saving money by having them expire sooner than initially planned…. President Joe Biden backed the … strategy as well, and that appears to be the course Democrats will pursue. Biden and the progressives hope the policies will be so popular — even if they’re only implemented for a short period — that it will be difficult for future lawmakers to let them lapse, regardless of who controls Congress.” (“Democrats Are Setting Up Social Policies For Painful Cliffs,” Vox, 10/20/2021)

REPORTER: “[W]e’ve heard the President say he wants he come back and get things later … extending the life of some of these programs that have been shortened. Progressives have been saying that now is the moment to do — go big; there might not be another moment.  Why does the President think, given how difficult things have been up to this point, that he’ll have another bite at the apple to sort of make these programs more enduring, or to include even things that couldn’t make it into this package somewhere down the line? … [W]hy does he think that a future Congress, or sometime later in this administration, he’ll have more luck going beyond where he’s at right now in getting more spending for some of those programs at the levels that he initially wanted and now he’s had to pare back?”
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JEN PSAKI: “One is what I referenced, related to the Social Security program in history or the Affordable Care Act, where these are programs that put in place the fundamental mechanisms in society to deliver on change and relief to people for decades to come. And what we’re talking about here is instituting some programs that have never existed before: universal pre-K; we’re talking about paid family and medical leave; we’re building on, as an example, the Affordable Care Act by continuing to expand healthcare coverage, which is another example of building. So the President’s belief is these changes are long overdue…. [A]nd that this package — these packages will be the basis for building on in the future, during his administration as well.” (White House Press Briefing 10/22/2021)

CONGRESSIONAL PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS LEADERS: “If given a choice between legislating narrowly or broadly, we strongly encourage you to choose the latter, and make robust investments over a shorter window. … This will help make the case for our party’s ability to govern, and establish a track record of success that will pave the way for a longterm extension of benefits.” (Congressional Progressive Caucus Leaders, Letter to Speaker Pelosi, 10/13/2021)

REP. MARK POCAN (D-WI): “It would be very hard for people to take things away, and that’s part of our goal… Once people see how popular these things are … many of these debates are the same debates we had when you created Social Security and other programs. And once people got them, you saw how wildly popular [they were]. We think some of these are going to be in that wildly popular category.” (“Progressives Say Go Big And Make Life Hard For GOP,” The Hill, 10/16/2021)

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): “Obviously, some of these programs are shorter than ideal. But the president believes, and I agree with him, that once we have these programs established, it becomes hard to take them away.” (“Democrats Are Setting Up Social Policies For Painful Cliffs,” Vox, 10/20/2021)

REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): “Many of us believe that once families have access to child care, once employees have access to paid family leave, once we begin certain programs, that it will be very challenging for Republicans to cut them off…” (“Progressives Say Go Big And Make Life Hard For GOP,” The Hill, 10/16/2021)

 

In Fact, Democrats Already Ran This Playbook On Their Child Tax Credit Expansion

“The aid is the result of an expanded, retooled child tax credit, which Democrats approved this past spring as part of their sprawling coronavirus relief package. Lawmakers grew the size of the benefit, ensured lower-income Americans could claim it fully on their taxes and allowed parents for the first time to collect the money in the form of monthly checks. Democrats hope to extend each of those elements as part of their latest, roughly $2 trillion economic initiative known as the Build Back Better Act, which more broadly aims to overhaul the country’s health care, education, climate and tax laws.” (“Democrats Face Race Against The Clock To Extend Soon-Expiring Child Tax Credit Payments,” The Washington Post, 12/09/2021)

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): “Let me just say: I want permanent Child Tax Credit.  I’ve wanted it for years.” (Speaker Pelosi, Press Conference, 10/21/2021)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): “[I]t’s my expectation that the Senate is going to act and get the Build Back Better Act over the finish line … And one of the reasons why it’s important is because of the pending expiration of the child tax credit … House Democrats will not allow this tax credit to expire, and I don’t believe that the Senate will either.” (Rep. Jeffries, Press Conference, 12/08/2021)

 

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues: Budget, Senate Democrats