On Monday, Former Vice President Biden’s White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki said a score released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which indicates Biden’s “Build Back Better Act” may, if made permanent, cost a lot more than his administration first said, was a “fake score.”
The CBO’s letter said, The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation project that a version of the bill modified as you have specified would increase the deficit by $3.0 trillion over the 2022–2031 period (see Table 2). That amount includes three components: effects usually counted in CBO’s cost estimates (which are labeled conventional effects in the table), the effects of increased resources for tax enforcement, and effects on interest on the public debt. Under long-standing guidelines agreed to by the legislative and executive branches, estimates to be used for budget enforcement purposes include the first component but not the second and third.
DOOCY TIME: Biden says BBB won’t “add a penny to the deficit. The CBO has this new score where they assume that social programs are going to be made permanent…It would add almost $3 trillion, so does that mean…[he] will commit that [they’re] not going to be made permanent?” pic.twitter.com/Icmbg1xMB4
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 13, 2021
Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki, “So the President says that the Build Back Better is not going to add a penny to the deficit. The CBO has this new score, where they assume that social programs are going to be made permanent and in that case, it would add almost $3 trillion. So does that mean that President Biden will commit that these programs are not going to be made permanent?”
Psaki responded, “Well, first of all, what we’re talking about here is a fake CBO score. That is not based on the actual bill that anybody is voting on.”
“The President has conveyed very clearly multiple times publicly, that he would like programs, if they’re extended to be paid for. That remains his commitment. But it’s important to understand that when you, when anybody 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 everybody’s going to vote on and considering in Congress right now.”