We’re talking about trillions of dollars here, but Democrats have bobbed back and forth between $2 trillion and $3 trillion in terms of the eventual cost of the Biden “Build Back Better” framework on domestic social spending. Now, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report this week put the price tag at $5 trillion if any of the bill’s temporary programs or tax cuts became permanent, a move that often happens when temporary measures are about to expire years down the road.
This new $5 trillion price tag, coupled with Sen. Joe Manchin’s previous concern over inflation and reckless spending seem to have derailed Biden’s plan yet again, this time likely well into next year, which means it may not happen at all:
Government reports on rising inflation and the potential costs of President Joe Biden’s social and environment legislation raised fresh questions Friday about the bill’s fate, with both sides hoping the new numbers would influence pivotal Sen. Joe Manchin.
The moderate Manchin, D-W.Va., has spent months forcing Democrats to trim the 10-year, $2 trillion package, arguing it’s too expensive and at times citing growing inflation as a reason to slow work on the bill. On Friday, the Labor Department said consumer prices grew last month at an annual rate of 6.8%, the highest in 39 years.
A separate report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that if many of the bill’s temporary spending boosts and tax cuts were made permanent, it would add $3 trillion to the price tag. That would more than double its 10-year cost to around $5 trillion. Democrats called the projections from the Republican-requested report fictitious.
Manchin was worried about inflation weeks ago, imagine his firepower now with the report yesterday that inflation hit a 39-year high in November.
We’re already seeing the highest level of consumer prices in almost 40 years. Dropping another $2 trillion or $5 trillion is like dropping gasoline on a burning house. There can be no positive outcome in the coming years for any hope of stabilizing the economy with so much “free” government money floating around.
Manchin was already weary this week, urging his fellow Democrats to avoid using budget gimmicks to try and lower the projected costs:
Manchin noted that the Democrats’ social spending bill would amount to “major changes” in policy on taxes, climate and social services. While Democrats have brought down the price tag of the social spending bill to $1.7 trillion from $3.5 trillion, the West Virginia Democrat said Democratic leadership only changed the amount of time the policies would last.
“One goes for three years, one goes for one year … one might go for the full 10 years, do they not intend for those programs to last the full 10 years?” Manchin asked. “Well if you don’t intend for that to happen, what’s the real cost? Because we’re either going to debt-finance it if we’re not going to pay for it or come back and change the tax code again.”
It’s a shell game on the American taxpayer. First, we’ll move a trillion over here, then a trillion over here, then pay for this next couple of trillion over 10 years, then change this tax law, then move this trillion back, and on and on forever. It’s a Rube Goldberg machine of Democratic social spending destined to collapse somewhere in the middle leaving the country with trillions more in debt and rising inflation.
Biden acknowledged on Friday his plan could be dead in the water thanks to Manchin:
President Joe Biden said Friday he doesn’t know if he can get West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on board to support his social safety net bill, but is expected to speak with him about the legislation next week as the Senate moves closer to its holiday recess.
Asked whether he could lock down Manchin’s support given the West Virginian’s inflation worries, Biden said, “Well, I don’t know the answer to that. I’m going to be talking to him (at) the beginning of the week.”
Manchin knows it, Democrats know it, and Biden knows it. There is no good way to dress up spending $3 to $5 trillion dollars depending on how the CBO scores it. It’s a disaster in the making.
Democrats are at a crossroads where they will need to start cutting this monstrosity down limb by limb to something Manchin and Sinema can swallow, or it’s going to sit and rot on the Senate floor. Democrats know this too, the further they get into 2022, the harder it’s going to be for this vote to happen.
Time is of the essence. What will President Manchin–sorry–Senator Manchin decide to do?
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