The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that the Democrat “infrastructure” bill would cost $5.4 trillion, which is much more expensive than initially projected.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) plans to move forward with a partisan infrastructure bill that they claim would cost $3.5 trillion. However, according to the Committee, the proposal could cost “far more” than the Democrats’ projection.
Instead, the nonpartisan organization projects that the bill would cost $5.4 trillion over a decade and that Democrat lawmakers intend to use “arbitrary policy sunsets” or “budget gimmicks” to hide the true cost of the bill.
The Committee detailed some of the Democrat “infrastructure” bill’s more expensive provisions, which notably, does not amount to physical infrastructure. This includes:
- $1.1 trillion in expanded Child Tax Credits
- $330 billion in clean energy and vehicle tax incentives
- $100 billion in climate-smart agriculture, wildfire prevention, and forestry
- $285 billion in funding for community colleges, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and Pell Grants
- $250 billion for child care
- $225 billion for paid family and medical leave
- $165 billion for universal pre-kindergarten
- $190 billion for affordable housing programs
- $400 billion for expansions of home and community-based healthcare services
- $370 billion in new dental, vision, and hearing benefits in Medicare,
- $300 billion to close the Medicaid “coverage gap” in non-Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion states
- $165 billion extension of ACA benefits from the Democrats’ coronavirus relief bill, the American Rescue Plan
- $120 billion to lower prescription drugs
- $120 billion to change the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which primarily helps wealthy, Democrat states
The Committee wrote in the analysis, “It would be unwise and irresponsible to use arbitrary expirations and sunsets to obscure the true cost of this legislation.”
Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president of policy for the Committee, said Monday that Democrats plan to hide the cost of the Democrat infrastructure bill by having some programs and tax breaks expire.
Goldwein said, “the new $3.5 trillion budget agreement appears to have enough policies to cost $5 – $5.5 trillion over a decade. Lawmakers plan to hide the package’s true cost by having some programs and tax breaks expire early.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.