Democrats’ Tax & Spend bill tallies $4.9T, CBO estimates

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published an estimate of the Democrats’ tax and spending reconciliation bill, requested by House Budget Committee Ranking Member Jason Smith (MO-08) and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (SC), that confirms the bill’s true cost to be $4.9 trillion and $3 trillion in new debt.

“This analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirms that Washington Democrats are misleading the public about the true cost and impact of their tax and spending agenda,” said Ranking Member Smith. “For weeks, Democrats have ignored independent analyses that showed what CBO today has now confirmed – their reckless reconciliation bill will ultimately cost $4.9 trillion and add $3 trillion to the debt."

In the past, Smith said, Democrats heralded the CBO as the "gold standard."

"It is irresponsible and disrespectful to American taxpayers that Democrats remain in denial about the true impact of their agenda while at the same time they are doing nothing to tackle the highest spike in consumer prices since 1982, as confirmed by the Department of Labor this morning. In fact, their proposal will only make the recent spike in prices worse. Democrats are wasting precious time attempting to ram through an agenda that will bankrupt the economy, benefit the wealthy, and build the Washington bureaucracy,” Smith said.

“CBO has provided a true cost of the bill over ten years – assuming the programs never go away – which they will not.  Their analysis is stunning,” said Ranking Member Graham. “The true cost of the bill has more than doubled and the effect on the deficit is eightfold. This score should stop the effort to pass Build Back Better in its tracks because it will dramatically expand government and do great harm to energy production. We’re calling on the Democratic Party to shelve Build Back Better to give the American consumer and economy breathing room to recover.  I very much appreciate CBO scoring Build Back Better without budget gimmicks. We all know that the new provisions will not sunset – they never do.”

On November 9^th, Smith and Graham wrote to CBO requesting a supplemental score of the Democrats’ tax and spending reconciliation bill to show the cost of the bill if provisions within the bill were made permanent, as is the stated intent of Congressional Democrats and the White House. The bill sunsets various, costly programs solely to make them appear less expensive on paper. These include the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit expansions which the bill currently sunsets after 2022, the expanded Obamacare subsidies which the bill currently sunsets after 2025, and the Child Care and Universal Pre-Kindergarten provisions which the bill currently sunsets after 2027.

CBO’s analysis confirms that the Democrats’ tax and spending bill over the next ten years: