Congressional Budget Office releases statement on actual cost of Build Back Better in contradiction to Biden administration

The Biden administration has been forced to contradict the Congressional Budget Office to maintain that the “Build Back Better” agenda will not add to the nation’s current deficit, according to a report by Fox News. 

According to a Thursday announcement of the CBO’s scoring there will, in fact, be a substantial addition to the national deficit to the tune of around $367 billion, should the bill pass the Senate. 

The bill passed the House of Representatives on Friday and is moving to the upper house of Congress with the Biden administration working to combat the results of the nonpartisan CBO’s assessment which contradicts the White House’s official statement. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that the office’s statement was just one opinion on the bill, seeming to tare away at the CBO’s credibility when she said that “IRS enforcement is not something that there’s a lot of experience in the CBO scoring.” 

“They still scored it, but is undervalued by the assessment of many economists and experts, including people who have been critical of us in the past, who estimate, including former Treasury secretaries of both parties, who estimate there will be savings significantly higher than what is estimated currently,” Psaki said. “So our assessment and the assessment by many economists out there is that there will be savings over 10 years will actually reduce the deficit,” Psaki added. 

Psaki went on to say that the White House “can confirm … that there are significant savings that will come from this,” the White House press officer said, before seemingly attempting to soften her words by qualifying that the White House appreciates the “overall work of the CBO.” 

“I would point to the fact that there isn’t a great deal of history or experience in scoring IRS enforcement,” she said again. “That’s something that economists across the board have noted. That’s something that [the] leaders on the Hill, Democrats, and Republicans have been briefed on for several months now. And that’s why it wasn’t really a surprise to them and why the vote in part moved forward.” 

“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,” the CBO said in a release.

Possibly the most troubling way the White House plans to offset the cost of their plan was outlined by the Treasury Department who indicated that the “enhanced IRS tax enforcement” will likely generate $400 billion in new tax revenue.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also doubled down on the official statement, saying that her agency’s scores and analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation were standing by their statements on the break-even result of the plan:

“The combination of CBO & JCT’s scores over the last week and Treasury analysis make it clear that Build Back Better is fully paid for, and in fact will reduce our nation’s debt over time through $2 trillion+ in revenue raisers and other savings,” Yellen said.

Build Back Better passed the House of Representatives, despite herculean efforts by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who delivered a record-breaking speech on the House floor, outlining the potentially damaging effects of the $1.85 trillion package that eventually passed on Friday morning, despite staunch Republican opposition and one lone Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) the only Democrat breaking with his party to oppose the bill. 

The post Congressional Budget Office releases statement on actual cost of Build Back Better in contradiction to Biden administration first appeared on Conservative Institute.