Janet Yellen, Treasury Secretary is trying to sell the increasingly unpopular BuildBack Better Act before the year’s end.
Yellen sent a memo to the Senate Dec. 9 titled “Fiscal Responsibility and the Build Back Better Act.” She wanted to get ahead of major reports that delivered a one-two punch to the Democrats’ plan to increase taxes and dole it back out to friends of the party.
Despite repeated claims that the bill was being paid for, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a study showing that the bill’s temporary policies would increase deficit spending by $3 trillion. Inflation is also at an all-time high of 40 years due to the out-of control government spending.
As the Biden administration struggles to escape the economic consequences of its left-wing policies and policies, Yellen writes a memo that makes wildly exaggerated claims. These are the claims Yellen makes regarding the Build Back Better Act.
Claim 1: The Build back Better Act was fully paid for within the first ten years.
Fact Check: FALSE—The Congressional Budget Office shows that the Build Back Better Act is NOT fully paid for and will increase the deficit by nearly $400 billion.
In her memo, Yellen states that the Joint Committee on Taxation as well as the Congressional Budget Office back her claim that a Build Back Better Act would reduce the deficit by $100 billion over the first ten years.
However, the memo is linked to an older version reportThe bill’s increase in deficit will be $367 billion over 10 year, according to the estimate of the bill. Even if there are higher revenues that could be generated by additional IRS administrative funding (the White House-Congressional scorekeeping guidelinesThese types of revenues are excluded because they are highly speculative). The bill would still increase deficits to $160 billion.
Yellen is basing her claim on her own Treasury Department’s unrealistic assumption that IRS funding would yield more than double the revenues projected by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. A nonpartisan independent analysis has rejected the Treasury Department’s biased numbers.
The Congressional Budget Office is a joint venture of the Joint Committee on Taxation. reports that the Build Back Better Act—without the smoke and mirrors of sunsetting new spending programs—would increase the deficit by $3 trillion over the first 10 years of its enactment.
Claim: The Buildback Better Act, a fully offset investment of ten years that will not contribute to inflationary pressures in near future, is a claim..
Fact Check: FALSE—Americans are already experiencing inflationary pressures from previous deficit spending. The Build Back Better Bill will only increase inflationary pressures.
Since the outbreak, the federal government has spent more than $5 trillion on deficit spending. As a result, Americans are getting hit with rising price increases—the highest it’s been in 40 years. For example, gasoline prices increased by 58.1% last year, while meats, poultry and eggs increased by 12.8%.
If passed, the Build back Better Act will add $792 billion to the deficit over the next five-years and only worsen it inflationary pressures.
The Federal Reserve will purchase a large portion of this increased government deficit spending. However, the Build Back Better bill would increase taxes on investment, new regulations and mandates, expand welfare without work and create harmful energy policies. All of these will lead to higher prices and worsening supply chain problems and labor shortages. This will lead to more dollars being spent on fewer goods and services, which is the classic recipe for inflation.
Claim: The Build back Better Act will reduce deficits by approximately $2 trillion over the next two decades.
Fact Check: FALSE—This claim is based on purposefully dishonest accounting gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill.
It was clear from the American people. A $3.5 trillion tax-andspend bill that is hyper-partisan and partisan is not what the American people want. The Biden administration and its negotiators redesigned the bill to hide the true cost.
This claim assumes the tax hikes will be permanent, while the socialist benefit programs will be temporary. But as the old saying goes, “the closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program.” Like the excessive number of federal housing, welfare, and insurance programs that currently exist, the programs under Build Back Better will continue forever and run massive deficits.
What the most recent Congressional Budget Office report reveals is that if the programs are made permanent—which is what Democrats consistently say they want—the bill would add $3 trillion to the debt in the first decade. It would almost certainly add trillions to the debt in the second decade.
Claim: Given this bill’s offsets and the commitment of President Joe Biden and congressional leadership to pay for this and future legislation, it is inappropriate to judge this legislation based on an assumption that future acts of Congress won’t be paid for.
Fact Check: FALSE—The logic behind this claim is entirely incoherent.
Yellen claims Biden and his Democratic colleagues are so fiscally responsible they should be believed when they claim they will pay for this bill.
However, the whole concept of the national debt—currently at $29 trillion and rising—is that it reflects Congress’s long history of being unable to pay for the spending it has promised. It is not unfounded to point out that Congress will have trouble paying for future programs and that it will add trillions more to the debt ocean.
Finance promises of progressivesIt would be necessary higher taxeson middle-class households. During the Build Back Better negotiations, even Democrats have rejected several tax hike proposals.
The spotlight is on and the Biden administration is starting to feel the heat. Progressive policies are causing more and more families to be disadvantaged. This administration should not propagandize cynical falsehoods in order to pass an agenda which will crush families and the country, but instead admit that this bill was too radical for the American people.
Americans must now hold their leaders responsible, call them out on broadcasting flagrant lies to conceal its own failures, stop them from doing more.
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