Psaki v Graham - Who Has the Fake BBB Bill?

The purpose of this article is to clear up any confusion you might have about Joe Biden’s Build Back Better (or Broke) bill.  The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) finally scored the original $1.7 Trillion bill that has already passed The House and is being considered by the Senate right now.  President Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have all said that this bill would cost ZERO, which is actually a ridiculous statement.  The fact is, that version of the bill would cost $1.7 trillion over 10 years.  The “zero cost” statement, that the President, et al, were making was suggesting that all of those costs would be covered by increased revenue (taxes) and none of that spending would add to our country’s debt.

Unfortunately, the CBO scored that bill as it was written and found that it would actually add $367 billion dollars to our debt over that 10-year period.  While some might not find that amount of debt concerning, it still reveals that the “zero cost (debt)” promise was a lie.  Personally, I’m a debt-hater, so I would at least find a way to reduce that bill’s cost to $1.2 Trillion and make good on the zero-debt promise.

Regrettably for the President and Nancy Pelosi and all of the Democrats who voted for this bill before it was scored by the CBO, and without even reading it, Lindsey Graham asked the CBO to score that same bill with all of its provisions extended for the full 10 years of the bill’s life.  You see, what Democrats have been hiding is that while this bill brings in revenue for 10 years, it only applies the costs of many programs for one or two or three years, and so on.  If that was the actual intent of the Democrats for these provisions (to only last one year, etc.) that would be one thing.  However, all of the Democrats have already announced their intention to extend all of those provisions for the full 10-year period.

When the Graham score came in, it shocked the likes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema and should at least startle the rest of us.  The CBO found that the total cost of this bill would be $5.0 Trillion and it would add $3.0 Trillion to our debt.  That is almost three times the total cost originally advertised by the President and over eight times the debt of the bill that passed in the House.  This is a far cry from “zero”.

Just yesterday, Jen Psaki suggested that the Graham score was a “fake” score on a “fake” bill.  Is she right?  That depends on how you define the word “fake”.  It is true that what Lindsey Graham asked the CBO to score is NOT the bill that was passed by the House and is being considered by the Senate now.  In that sense, Jen Psaki is telling the truth.

However, if the bill that Lindsey Graham had scored better reflects the intent of Democrats in Congress, then Jen Psaki is being duplicitous in her claims and the bill that has already passed the House is the fake bill.  I will let my readers decide for themselves, however, you need to be aware of both scenarios being offered by the two sides.

There is one more aspect of the BBB bill that is inconsistent with the President’s promise not to increase taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.  There is a provision in this $5.0 Trillion monstrosity to spend $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents, which would more than double the ranks of this most hated government agency.    These 87,000 new agents will be performing 600,000 more audits (doubling the number they do today) and half of those new audits will be performed on people making less than $75,000 per year.   I would expect that virtually all of these new audits would be done on people making less than $400,000 per year.  The Treasury Department estimated that these audits will generate $40 billion in new taxes (revenues) every year.  That means that LOTS of people making less than $400,000 per year will be put through the horrifying experience of an audit, and will also be paying higher taxes as a result.

So, you can decide which bill is fake.  The one that is actually being debated right now but hides critical facts, like how long these programs will last, and where the revenues will come from.  Or, the one that Lindsey Graham had the CBO score which is not in front of Congress, but offers a much more realistic understanding of the true costs and debt burden we will all experience.