President Joe Biden makes a ton of claims but one that has drawn a lot of criticism lately is that the Build Back Better package is going to add approximately “zero dollars” to the national debt. The claim not only got called out by the Washington Post and awarded Two Pinocchios, but was reiterated and defended by White House press secretary Jen Psaki herself. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has echoed the claim. They’ve continued to dismiss warnings about the price tag and how America will handle one of the largest spending bills and tax increases in the country’s history.
Psaki shared at a recent press briefing that Biden’s Build Back Better agenda would cost nothing for Americans making less than $400,000 and accused White House correspondent Peter Doocy of trying to “dumb it down” for the American public. She emphasized that they are talking about how much the top-line investments are, adding that they have “ways to pay for it” regardless of size or cost.
“So the point is that’s important to the American public — and all of your viewers, too — that this is not going to cost the American public a dollar. We’re going to pay for this by asking corporations, the highest income — so people under $400,000, I should say — corporations’ highest income to cover the costs of these necessary investments,” Psaki said.
Reporters have continued to ask Psaki for clarification on how the plan “costs nothing” but she has only redirected the conversation to point at larger corporations paying zero in taxes. She said they would put taxes on the wealthiest corporations and individuals. One frustrated reporter continued to grill Psaki over comments she made earlier in the week about the expense of these measures.
“The cost of the investments the president wants to make, they’re not simply a free lunch, right? Whether they’re going to cost people who smoke cigarettes, or businesspeople, or companies, or rich people… The cost of what the President wants to do falls on somebody, right?” The reported asked.
Psaki pushed back that there’s a “clear difference” between what they are talking about as it relates to taxpayer funds and the funds that lead to our debt. The White House has continued to push the claim that the $3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation bill would be paid for by taxing the rich, even though the American taxpayer always ends up getting the bad end of the deal. When they tax the corporations further, it only forces inflation and the cost of goods to spike, which already has under the Biden Administration.
There is a reason that some moderate Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, are so dead-set against this bill and will destroy it from passing in the process. Raising taxes never made anything free and it has been described as a “socialist spending bill” by many GOP members.
Even Pelosi has repeated the same thing, adding that it’s “not about a dollar amount” and that the “bill will be paid for.” But spending money is still spending money and progressives haven’t gotten the memo.
