Build Back Better Will Add $367 Billion To National Debt, CBO Says

The Build Back Better Act will add $367 billion to the national debt over ten years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced Thursday.

The CBO’s final report, published as the House of Representatives begins another round of debate over the social spending package, affirms the thinking of economists who have pushed back on the Biden administration’s claim that the bill will be “fully paid for.”

The non-partisan agency’s top-line number does not include potential revenue from increased tax enforcement, which could lower the debt impact by up to $207 billion over the ten-year period. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced in a Dear Colleague letter that the House would vote on the reconciliation bill as soon as the CBO released its final analysis.

The most expensive provisions in the package are a tax credit for daycare and early childhood education, which will cost more than $273 billion, and provisions labeled “social safety net,” including a child tax credit and an expansion of Obamacare, which will cost more than $268 billion.