Joe Biden addresses the nation on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021. (Video screenshot)
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Policy.]
By Adam Andrzejewski
Real Clear Policy
President Joe Biden said the price tag of the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” spending plan dubbed the Build Back Better Act is actually zero, a claim Reason Magazine calls “dubious.”
"We talk about price tags. It is zero price tag on the debt," Biden said. "We are going to pay for everything we spend."
Not only is it not zero, but the $3.5 trillion figure to fund the expanse of social services “is a phony number,” according to the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
The spending plan was “full of delayed starts, phony phase-outs, and cost shifting to states designed to fit $3.5 trillion into a 10-year budget window that can pass with a mere 51 Senate votes,” the editors wrote.
For instance, a Medicare expansion includes new vision and hearing benefits over the next two years, costing about $20 billion a year. But a much more expensive dental benefit will be pushed back to 2028, where the costs explode, the WSJ said.
A child tax credit expands the current $3,000 to $3,600 per-child payments for a decade, costing about $1.1 trillion. But as that credit is sure to be extended indefinitely, it will cost $110 billion each year.
While Democrats say the $3.5 trillion will be paid for with tax increases, savings from changing how Medicare and Medicaid buy pharmaceutical drugs and with future economic growth, Reason points out that federal government hasn't fully paid for its regular spending since 2001.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that there isn’t a single year in the next 30 in which the budget will balance.
That $3.5 trillion sure sounds like “a phony number.”
The #WasteOfTheDay is presented by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Policy.]
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