"My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars. Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America. And it adds zero dollars to the national debt."
President Joe Biden tweeted that statement on Twitter last week without a hint of irony:
https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1441924106765602819
Or, at least, whoever is controlling his Twitter account made the claim. But the fact is, it is a false claim.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made the same false claim this week in a back-and-forth with reporters.
“It’s not about a dollar amount…the dollar amount, as the president said, is zero," she said when she was asked about the gargantuan amount of money that will be spent.
https://twitter.com/HouseGOP/status/1443227110529712140
Biden and Pelosi are talking about his $3.5 trillion spending package that contains a left-wing liberal wish list of massive new government entitlement spending that does so in a way socialist Democrats always craft spending bills: By taking property (that would be wealth) away from people who earned a lot of it and giving it to potential voters who earned not a single penny of it.
And by the way, where are the media's vaunted "fact-checkers"?
At least the fact checkers are enjoying their vacation after a hard couple of years. https://t.co/Alj2sQq05A
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 27, 2021
"Republicans have ripped Build Back Better, a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, as a massive bill that 'ultimately provides benefits to wealthy liberal elites at the expense of working-class families,'" Fox News reported. "Moderate Democrats, like Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., have also raised concerns about the reconciliation package, the latter noting the bill lacks cost analysis by the Congressional Budget Office."
"I don’t think we can afford everything," Murphy said. "Unless something changes, I have no choice but to vote no on every subtitle (in the bill) and on final passage."
The 'zero cost' claims were widely mocked and ridiculed online as well.
Nobody believes creating new, massive and permanent government programs costs zero dollars especially not the Senate Democrats they need to convince to vote for it. https://t.co/zG255X2TQ1
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) September 27, 2021
Absolute lie.
1. Build Back Better is code for gaining government control of means of production and energy - pure communism.
2. All taxes on corporations are passed on to the middle class & the wealthy dodge them - therefore these taxes ARE going to impact the middle class... https://t.co/SWZofadgTj
— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) September 27, 2021
This is a lie. https://t.co/Fvc1FLVk1X
— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) September 27, 2021
Simple math for President Biden:
$3.5 trillion does NOT equal zero. https://t.co/pVqODYCOGT
— Congresswoman Tenney (@RepTenney) September 26, 2021
They say the border's closed. Hunter's emails were Russian disinformation. We won't leave any Americans behind in Afghanistan. Reins are whips. Trillions of dollars equals zero dollars.
It's good to know "grown-ups" are in charge now and leading the fight against misinformation. https://t.co/CEG2BCG8ue
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) September 27, 2021
"I have to admit, I thought this was from a parody account when I first read it," Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., added in a follow-up tweet. "It was disturbing to see it was actually from our President. He thinks he can spend an unprecedented $3.5 trillion and not add a penny to the debt? This is who is in charge? Scary."
"Your comms person is ‘economically illiterate,’" Erielle Davidson, senior policy analyst at The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said.
Even Democrats are having a difficult time with Biden's and Pelosi's math. Moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia have told their caucus they cannot support such a large amount of new spending because they know the measure isn't paid for and they don't want to add to the national debt (and they live in conservative states).
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