The White House is blasting the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that President Joe Biden’s “Building Back Better” plan could increase the federal deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade if the proposed programs included are made permanent, the Washington Examiner is reporting.
“What we’re talking about here is a fake CBO score that is not based on the actual bill that anybody is voting on,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
The CBO had estimated on Nov. 18 that the legislation would increase the nation’s deficit by $160 billion over the next decade if the programs were not made permanent.
But Republicans had asked the CBO to rescore the spending bill as if its provisions would be extended indefinitely, according to the Examiner.
“If the temporary provisions of this bill are extended, and I fully expect them to be if our Democratic colleagues have the votes to do it, this legislation will cost a whole lot more than what the American people have been told,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas,
The $1.7 trillion initiative passed by the House of Representatives last month would establish universal preschool, expand Medicaid, provide green energy tax credits, and add roughly $1.95 trillion in new taxes, Fox News reported.
“CBO should be open to critique, as economists often make mistakes,” Cato Institute’s tax policy director, Chris Edwards. said. “But in this case, CBO projections provide a more realistic accounting than the low-balled costs suggested by the Democrats.
“The Democrats are trying to impose permanent costs on to taxpayers with their new spending programs, so Congress should consider the long-term costs.”
And the Bipartisan Policy Center’s senior vice president, Bill Hoagland, countered Psaki’s criticism of the request for a CBO rescore.
“That’s not fake. That’s just asking a hypothetical,” he said. “I do disagree with adding interest on the public debt.”
