US President Joe Biden’s social plan will add $ 367 billion to the deficit over the next ten years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced Thursday.
The CBO’s calculations are a setback for Biden, who had promised that his social plans would have no additional cost and would be financed by raising taxes on large companies and the wealthiest.
Democrats had waited weeks for these estimates to be made public because some centrist party lawmakers, such as Senator Joe Manchin, oppose any increase in the deficit.
Before the CBO released its figures, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter to her co-religionists to inform them that the initiative will be debated tonight, after which the vote could take place.
The social package, baptized in English “Build Back Better”, is valued at 1.75 billion dollars and would expand programs aimed at minors and the elderly, in addition to dedicating 550,000 million to the fight against the climate crisis.
Although approved by the lower house, the package faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where two centrist Democrats – Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – have threatened to topple it.