The White House said Friday that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office could not accurately score new revenue from increased Internal Revenue Service enforcement in the Democrats’ sweeping reconciliation bill.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said increased IRS enforcement would raise the revenue to cover the bill’s estimated increase in the deficit, about $367 billion over a decade, rejecting the CBO’s analysis. Biden and Democrats have argued the plan is fully paid for because of its tax offsets.
“Our assessment and the assessment by many economists out there is that there will be savings over 10 years,” Psaki said. “It will actually reduce the deficit.”
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“This is an area where experts, economic experts … have confirmed that there are significant savings that will come from this,” she continued.
In 2010, Biden touted the CBO scoring as the “gold standard” and “widely respected.” He called the office “bipartisan” and “respectable” one year earlier.
The White House has insisted the CBO’s report has failed to account for other revenue.
“What I’m conveying to you is that our calculations and assessments and those of outside economists are that [this bill will] actually reduce the deficit and it will also lower costs and reduce inflationary pressures,” Psaki said.
Psaki was asked about a 2017 tweet in which she chastised a former Trump administration official for seeming to dismiss a CBO score. “Watching Mullaney try to walk away from CBO score and explain budget outline is awkward and uncomfortable,” Psaki wrote at the time.
She responded that the Biden administration was not dismissing the CBO’s score and had praised the office. But, she added, “there isn’t a great deal of history or experience in scoring IRS enforcement.”
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In a memo to Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi argued that the CBO score was “good news” because it showed the bill costing $50 billion less than prior estimates.
Pelosi has said her caucus was waiting for the CBO score to vote.
