White House press secretary Jen Psaki continued Monday the Biden administration’s criticism of a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis finding that programs in the Build Back Better Act could add as much as $3 trillion to the federal debt over ten years.
“This is an ask requested by [Republican South Carolina] Sen. [Lindsey] Graham to score a bill that is not currently being debated,” Psaki said at a press conference, in response to a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy about the analysis released Friday. Psaki blasted the score as “fake,” adding that it is “not based on the actual bill that anyone is voting on.”
“Our focus is on the existing bill that will lower the deficit, that will also over an additional ten years pay for the $2 trillion tax cuts that Republicans did not pay for. They are welcome for that. So I would say Peter, to your question, the president has conveyed very clearly, multiple times publicly, that he would like programs, if they are extended, to be paid for. That remains his commitment, but it is important to understand when anyone raises a question about this new CBO score, it is a fake score about a bill that doesn’t exist and we should really focus on the actual bill everyone is actually going to vote on and consider in Congress right now,” she continued.
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The Build Back Better Act currently assumes that provisions like a child tax credit will expire, despite the fact that many Democrats have called for them to be made permanent. The Build Back Better Act assumes that the child tax credit will expire after 2022, and new federal funding for child care and preschools will expire after 2027. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Par For The Course’: Former CBO Director Says White House Attacks On Report Are Classic Partisan Pushback)
Graham revealed on Sunday that Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin had predicted to him that making the Build Back Better provisions permanent would lead to a doubling of the bill’s cost. Manchin had previously blasted the expiration dates as “shell games” and “budget gimmicks” designed to disguise the true cost of the bill.
“Joe Manchin came to me and he said, ‘I think this bill is full of gimmicks, that these programs won’t go away, Lindsey, and if you score them for 10 years, I think the bill will double.’ Well, it didn’t double, it was almost 2.5 times,” Graham told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
Psaki previously derided the score as “fake” during her Friday press conference.
“It’s not about the existing bill anybody is debating or voting on,” she said. “This is about proposing the extension of programs that has not been agreed to, without the commitment of the president.”
The CBO found that the bill as written would add up to $207 billion over a ten-year period.