House Democrats Pass Historic ‘Build Back Better’ Budget Reconciliation Bill On Party-Line Vote

Late Thursday, Democrats got some good news as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) conservative scoring of the Build Back Better bill means that the bill will be more than fully paid for. Good News For Democrats CBO Score Means Build Back Better Is Fully Paid For:

There have been some accurate headlines saying that the CBO found that Build Back Better slightly increases the deficit, but that was without factoring in increased IRS tax enforcement.

The White House explained why this is good news for Democrats in a statement provided to PolitcusUSA:

• • • Good news for Democrats – the cost elements came in lower than the White House estimates – in the ballpark of $50bn lower cost.
    • The savings from the prescription drug reforms came in $50bn higher – at $300bn compared to the White House’s estimate of $250bn.
    • That means that the bill will be more than fully paid for.
    • As long understood, CBO’s numbers on tax enforcement are lower than the Treasury’s estimates. Democrats have long known and anticipated this – will not be an issue.  

With that good news, the House proceeded to debate of the bill.

In a prescient opinion on Thursday, Dana Milbank wrote Paul Gosar killed his colleague in a cartoon. Kevin McCarthy is killing democracy in real life.

Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) is the one who truly has earned the censure of posterity. In his craven attempt to maintain himself as the House Republican leader, McCarthy showed once again that there is no level of violent, hateful or authoritarian speech that goes too far. By condoning threats and intimidation in the people’s House, he is inviting actual violence — and signing democracy’s death warrant.

“Traitor” Kevin McCarthy Thursday night further demonstrated his moral bankruptcy by engaging in a marathon filibuster in the House – take note Joe Manchin, the House does not have a filibuster rule and yet “Traitor” Kevin McCarthy demonstrated a talking filibuster of an unhinged rant of white grievance and Fox News talking points attacking Democrats for more than eight hours. In the end, his obstruction failed to stop a vote on the bill. This is how it should work in the Senate. Kevin McCarthy breaks record for longest House speech, talking for more than 8 hours to obstruct Biden’s social-spending bill:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy broke a record for the longest speech in the US House of Representatives, surpassing eight hours of continuous floor time early Friday morning.

The House minority leader began his rambling address at 8:38 p.m. ET on Thursday, hoping to obstruct Democrats’ attempts to advance a huge social-spending package championed by President Joe Biden.

McCarthy ended his speech at 5:11 a.m. Friday — eight hours and 33 minutes later.

McCarthy was allowed to speak so long by using the so-called magic-minute rule, which grants party leaders unlimited speaking time in certain situations. Unlike the Senate, the House has no filibuster.

[A]fter a little more than three hours of McCarthy’s speech, Democrats decided to delay the vote until 8 a.m. Friday, leaving McCarthy to talk for hours into the night to relatively little purpose.

This morning, the House reconvened and proceeded to a vote.  Democrats passed the Democratic budget reconciliation bill on a party-line vote with only one Democratic defection, Jared Golden sole Democrat to vote against Build Back Better Act:

Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the sole Democrat to vote against the Build Back Better Act on Friday.

Golden revealed his plans of voting against the massive spending bill on Thursday in a statement to the Bangor Daily News, citing tax rule changes that would likely benefit the wealthy.

Golden said he felt Democrats could “do better” than what has already been included in the social spending package. However, he did not rule out voting for the bill once it made its way through the Senate.

“Many of my colleagues argue this major line item is worth accepting to pass the rest of the bill,” Golden said in a statement to the newspaper. “I disagree: the SALT giveaway in the Build Back Better Act is larger than the child care, pre-K, healthcare or senior care provisions of the bill.”

(Golden has voted against his party in the past, including on the COVID-19 relief bill earlier this year and on former President Trump’s second impeachment.)

The centrist Democrat was also among the lawmakers who called for a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the bill before voting.

On Thursday, the CBO released a full cost estimate of the Build Back Better Act, estimating that the bill would increase the deficit by $367 billion over 10 years. The estimate did not, however, take into account the $207 billion in revenue that the bill would raise.

Note: Former Treasury Secretary and economist Lawrence Summers says the conservative CBO estimate of increased revenue from greater IRS enforcement against tax cheats underestimates the revenue it will actually produce. IRS reform will generate a lot more revenue than the CBO thinks.

Nancy Pelosi is a boss. History will record that she is among the most powerful and successful Speakers of the House in U.S. History. “Traitor” Kevin McCarthy is no leader, even in his own party, and should never be allowed anywhere near the Speakers gavel.

This bill now goes to the Senate where hillbilly coal baron Joe Manchin is still being an obstructionist, and demonstrating bad faith – he got his “precious,” the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law – now he must honor the agreement that the entire Democratic caucus agreed to and pass the rest of the Build Back Better agenda.

Democrats are delivering for American families with the American Families Plan included in the Democratic budget reconciliation bill passed in the House today.

I will update with later reporting on passage of this bill.