Build Back Better

I addressed the issue of the spending and funding for the Build Back Better legislation to our local congressman, Jimmy Panetta. One of his staffers called me to discuss. Incredibly he told me I should just read the summary because the “bill and legislative process itself is too hard to understand” and that the bill would actually shrink the deficit. I told him that the Congressional Budget Office disagrees with him — that the bill would actually increase the deficit. I also told him I had downloaded the bill’s language and found it nearly impossible for intelligent people to understand. I wanted to know how the numbers were derived. To which he essentially responded that he and others had spent many hours/days working on them — so we should just trust them that the trillions of dollars were calculated correctly. In addition, I asked him why the federal government was sending California $26 billion when we have a budget surplus and the answer was it was done before the actual impacts were understood and the federal government would be stingier in the future. Hold our breath?

— Dennis Allion, Del Rey Oaks