"Democrats are grasping for ways to finance their cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the left demanding what they claim is $3.5 trillion over 10 years. The truth is that even that gargantuan number hides the real cost of their plans.

The bills moving through committees are full of delayed starts, phony phase-outs, and cost shifting to states designed to fit $3.5 trillion into a 10-year budget window that can pass with a mere 51 Senate votes. Even if the bill shrinks to $2 trillion or less, the real costs will be far greater. Behold one of the greatest fiscal cons in history.

• Start with the child allowance, which is among the bill’s most expensive provisions. Extending the $3,000 to $3,600 per-child payments for a decade would cost roughly $1.1 trillion. That’s as much as all of the income tax increases on individuals passed by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats have hidden the real cost by extending the allowance only through 2025. Even if Republicans gain control of Congress and the White House in 2024, Democrats and their media allies will bludgeon them to extend the payments, which will cost another $110 billion each year.
....
Democrats are using a different time shift to disguise the cost of their Medicare expansion. New vision and hearing benefits would kick in over the next two years and cost about $20 billion a year. But Democrats are delaying the phase-in of the much more expensive dental benefit to 2028. This “saves” $420 billion over 10 years, but the costs explode after that.

• Then there’s the new universal child-care entitlement, which gives $90 billion to the states—but only from 2022 to 2027. The bill limits household costs to a share of income on a sliding scale. None would pay more than 7% of income no matter how much they earn or how many children they have.
....
The press has reported almost none of this, which is how Democrats like it. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is far from a conservative outfit, pegs the real cost over a decade at $5 trillion to $5.5 trillion."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/3-5-trillion-is-a-phony-number-democrats-spending-bill-entitlements-joe-biden-11632425260?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

On Friday, September 24, 2021 at 10:57:02 AM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
> "Democrats are grasping for ways to finance their cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the left demanding what they claim is $3.5 trillion over 10 years. The truth is that even that gargantuan number hides the real cost of their plans.
>
> The bills moving through committees are full of delayed starts, phony phase-outs, and cost shifting to states designed to fit $3.5 trillion into a 10-year budget window that can pass with a mere 51 Senate votes. Even if the bill shrinks to $2 trillion or less, the real costs will be far greater. Behold one of the greatest fiscal cons in history.
>
> • Start with the child allowance, which is among the bill’s most expensive provisions. Extending the $3,000 to $3,600 per-child payments for a decade would cost roughly $1.1 trillion. That’s as much as all of the income tax increases on individuals passed by the House Ways and Means Committee.
>
> Democrats have hidden the real cost by extending the allowance only through 2025. Even if Republicans gain control of Congress and the White House in 2024, Democrats and their media allies will bludgeon them to extend the payments, which will cost another $110 billion each year.
> ...
> Democrats are using a different time shift to disguise the cost of their Medicare expansion. New vision and hearing benefits would kick in over the next two years and cost about $20 billion a year. But Democrats are delaying the phase-in of the much more expensive dental benefit to 2028. This “saves” $420 billion over 10 years, but the costs explode after that.
>
> • Then there’s the new universal child-care entitlement, which gives $90 billion to the states—but only from 2022 to 2027. The bill limits household costs to a share of income on a sliding scale. None would pay more than 7% of income no matter how much they earn or how many children they have.
> ...
> The press has reported almost none of this, which is how Democrats like it. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is far from a conservative outfit, pegs the real cost over a decade at $5 trillion to $5.5 trillion."
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/3-5-trillion-is-a-phony-number-democrats-spending-bill-entitlements-joe-biden-11632425260?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Must the government hide the truth from the people?
Because it is a democracy?
Or because it is pretending to be a democracy?