According to estimates, the Senate infrastructure bill will increase the national deficit by $256 billion over the next 10 years, contradicting claims that the spending had been offset.
In fiscal year 2020, the deficit hit a record $3.1 trillion, Just the News reports. So far in fiscal year 2021, the deficit is $2.2 trillion. The national debt is soaring to $29 trillion for the first time in U.S. history.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the infrastructure bill would generate $50 billion in revenue and increase the deficit.
“Over the 2021-2031 period, enacting Senate Amendment 2137 to H.R. 3684 would decrease spending by $110 billion, increase revenues by $50 billion, and increase discretionary spending by $415 billion,” the Thursday report reads. “On net, the legislation would add $256 billion to projected deficits over that period.”
Senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget warned that the White House and the senators involved in the bill were “significantly overstating” the offsets in the bill’s cost estimate.
“If you look at all COVID relief, yes, unemployment benefits for the American Rescue Plan cost $50 billion less than we thought but unemployment benefits for the CARES Act cost over $100 billion more,” he told Just the News.
“Basically, if you look at their numbers for offsets, you should remove the $53 billions or repurposing unemployment benefits, $67 billion for spectrum [auction sales], and about $160 billion for repurposing COVID relief,” Goldwein said. “And the reason I removed those three things is all three of them are essentially taking credit for something that’s happened in the past.”
