Dear Editor:
President Biden, House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Schumer remind me of the Three Stooges, Moe, Larry and Curley. Except they made us all laugh. Biden, Pelosi and Schumer make us want to cry. All three claim that the $1.85 trillion Build Back America Bill is fully paid for. Only fellow Democrat West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has the courage to challenge this charade.
The result will end up increasing our national debt by hundreds of billions. There is no guarantee that many of the anticipated spending offsets and future revenue sources will actually come to fruition. Any spending provisions that sunset after several years versus the full authorization period seldom occur.
Once recipients count on these new entitlements, Congress always seems to find funding to extend them. Have you even read of any elected official proudly announcing that his pet program will end?
The Congressional Budget Office conducted an honest review for the cost of this legislation. They added up the costs for such programs as expansion of Obamacare, child care subsidies, universal pre-kindergarten and others that would only be funded for the first few years rather than becoming permanent. The real cost for this bill assuming Congress extends funding several years down the road for the full ten years would add an additional $3 trillion in long term debt.
So much for truth in advertising. If you or I managed our finances like Biden, Pelosi and Schumer, we would have been audited by the IRS and sentenced to serve hard time in prison..
Larry Penner
