US Chamber of Commerce Slams Democrats' Reconciliation Budget Bill for Hiding Its True Cost

The Democrats have faced issues pushing a reconciliation bill through Congress, as moderate and progressive members of the party once again could not agree on the details of the spending.

The US Chamber of Commerce, a business advocacy group, has published a letter, in which it denounced the reconciliation bill proposed by the Democrats as full of "gimmicks" that were embedded in order to hide the bill's actual cost. According to the group, the reconciliation bill might cost around $1 trillion more in spending than the authors of the legislation claim.

The Chamber of Commerce notes that the reconciliation bill's "real-world impact" might be much higher than expected due to the use of the sunset provisions, which have a predetermined expiry time, the costs of which are calculated and included in the bill's declared spending cost. However, the potential costs from prolonging these provisions, which is also possible if the reconciliation legislation is passed in its current form, were left out.

The advocacy group called on lawmakers to re-evaluate the reconciliation bill's cost, its impact on employment, and inflation, which reached a 30-year-peak of 6.2% in October 2021.

The use of "gimmicks" to hide the true price of the bill reportedly did not elude some lawmakers. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who was at the forefront of trimming the costs of Biden's two key spending legislation pieces, slammed these provisions as "shell games" and suggested that the bill could cost twice as much compared to what had been declared, according to a New York Times report.

Due to disagreements between moderate and progressive Democrats, they could not pass the spending bill even using the reconciliation process, which allows the circumvention of a potential Republican filibuster. At the same time, the Democrats finally managed to pass Biden's large infrastructure bill – one of the key pieces of legislation he promised to pass.

They are still negotiating the price tag on the Build Back Better Act, with progressives seeking to include more social spending in it and moderates seeking to tone down its impact on the deficit and US national debt after rushing in September to avoid an imminent default prompted by hitting the debt ceiling.