The Congressional Budget Office Hasn’t Finished Scoring the Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act – Opinion

While the Senate’s “Vote-a-Rama” for Build Back Better v2.0, better known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is underway, it seems that the Congressional Budget Office hasn’t even finished scoring the bill we’ve been assured reduces inflation.

CBO says in letter to Schumer that it hasn’t finished full cost estimates of bill, including in sections under the Senate Finance Committee’s jurisdiction — a big chunk of the bill that deals with health care and taxeshttps://t.co/wrsg7XMVxR

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 6, 2022

Dear Mr. Leader:

This letter gives information regarding the budgetary impacts of H.R. 5376, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, as amended in the nature of a substitute (ERN22410) and posted on the website of the Senate Majority Leader on August 6, 2022: www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_of_20221.pdf

Although the Congressional Budget Office is yet to complete point estimates for all titles, we can show you the budgetary effects estimated for the following periods: 2022, 2022-2026, 2022-2031 and 2022-2031.

Once they become available, we’ll provide you with updated estimates.

Here is the CBO’s estimate so far which… would have been enough to scare Manchin away back when he pretended to be moderate.

• The Title I Committee on Finance would decrease deficits by over $1 billion in the period 2022-2031.
• Title II, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, will IncreaseOver the 2022-2031 time period, deficits will be less than $135 trillion
• The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Title III, would IncreaseInflations of less than $332 Billion in the 2022-2031 timeframe
• Title IV, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, IncreaseOver the period 2022-2031, deficits of less than $83.076 trillion
• Title V, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (Washington) IncreaseOver the 2022-2031 time period, deficits will be less than $198 trillion
• Title VI, Committee on Environment and Public Works would IncreaseIn the period 2022-2031, deficits of less than $67.264 trillion
• Title VII, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (Council on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) would IncreaseOver the period 2022-2031, deficits will be less than $37billion
• Title VIII, Committee on Indian Affairs (Washington) IncreaseInflations of less than $20.5 Billion in the period 2022-2031
• Title IX, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, IncreaseInflations of less than $726.38 trillion for the period 2022-2031

I’m not a stellar math student, but that seems like a lot of deficit increasing. The Democrats would love to pass the bill as soon as the CBO has scored it.

The new 30 page section that scores is not yet complete, but it was added in recent months. The Democrats are going to use this spending bill to finance pet projects, but not to reduce inflation. It’s all going well.

Joe Manchin deserves a special thank you. He appears to have cashed in his winnings, and is now on his way to the exit (voluntarily or forcefully). He is responsible for this spending bill.