By Anders Hagstrom
President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” involves more than $5 trillion in spending, but the president and his allies continue to insist it in fact costs nothing.
Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have each claimed that Biden’s plans will cost zero dollars and add nothing to the national debt, with the White House tweeting the same claim Friday morning.
The Biden administration claims the pay-fors included in the agenda counterbalance every dollar of spending, but watchdog organizations have disagreed. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that Biden’s agenda will require the U.S. to borrow roughly $2.4 trillion, while the tax hikes included in the bill would only cover for $1.1 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has yet to release its report on what the agenda will cost long-term, however.
Biden first made the claim that his agenda is essentially free Sunday, leading to heavy backlash from Republicans.
Republican members of Congress immediately began to pile onto the tweet, calling it “completely false,” and saying the president is “confused.”
It remains to be seen how Biden’s claim will fare under the CBO’s scrutiny. The organization did release a dire prediction that the U.S. will double its debt to nearly $60 trillion over the next 30 years, if budget deficits continue. It has stated that Biden’s smaller, bipartisan infrastructure bill will add $250 billion to the debt, but has yet to speak out on the larger, Democrat-only $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.
