CBO: Minus ‘gimmicks,’ plan’s true cost is $3T

The Congressional Budget Office projected on Friday that President Biden’s social-spending bill would add $3 trillion to the federal deficit once the “budget gimmicks” that critics like Sen. Joe Manchin say hide the true cost are stripped out.

The estimate came in response to a request from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) for a “score” on a version of the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act that would not wind down programs including universal child care, an expanded child tax credit, an increase in the cap on state and local tax deductions, and health-insurance subsidies.

“Ronald Reagan said the closest thing to immortality on Earth is a government program,” Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said at a news conference at the Capitol.

“We all know that the child tax credits are not going to go away after a year . . . That is the reality of Washington. These programs will not sunset. They will continue for a 10-year period.”

Manchin (D-W.Va.) charged last month that “budget gimmicks” were being used to conceal the bill’s actual price. And Republicans argue that Democrats intend to push to keep the bill’s programs beyond their proposed expiration dates.

“We’ve been saying from day one that we thought that over 10 years, [the true cost] would be over $4.5 trillion and would add around $3 trillion to the debt,” Smith, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, told The Post.

The CBO had projected earlier that a version passed by the House last month would add $367 billion to the budget deficit over 10 years.

The White House dismissed the new CBO report, with press secretary Jen Psaki calling it “bogus and fundamentally dishonest.”

“This is a fake CBO score,” she said. “It’s not about the existing bill anybody is debating or voting on. This is about proposing the extension of programs that has not been agreed to without the commitment of the president . . . that he would never support extending these programs if they weren’t paid for, period.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also called the CBO figure “fake” and noted it did not factor in Democrats’ pledge to “fully offset” any extensions of the act’s programs.