Khanna on Dems Demanding CBO Score on Spending Bill: ‘Don’t Hide Behind’ the CBO if You Want to ‘Shaft the Working Class’

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said that he can’t understand why some Congressional Democrats want to wait for a CBO score on the reconciliation bill and said that “If you’re for Trump’s vision that we should have tax cuts for the very wealthy and shaft the working class again, then don’t vote for it. But don’t hide behind CBO and this bureaucracy.”

Host Jake Tapper asked, “Josh Gottheimer and other members of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party said, all right, well, can we get the CBO to score this? Which is a pretty basic thing to have happen when it comes to legislation, much less legislation this big. Can you understand why they would want that?”

Khanna responded, “No, I can’t. Because the Joint Committee [on] Taxation has scored it. The actual deficit is the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That adds to the deficit. This actually raises revenue. And frankly, the economists working for the president are much better than many of the economists at the CBO. I mean, it’s not like the CBO’s analysis is that impressive. They missed some major things on the minimum wage. So, I don’t really get it. It’s pretty simple, Jake, do you believe we should help the working class and tax the very rich? If you’re for that, then you should be for Build Back Better. If you’re for Trump’s vision that we should have tax cuts for the very wealthy and shaft the working class again, then don’t vote for it. But don’t hide behind CBO and this bureaucracy. That’s not truthful. Take a position, are you for the working class or are you not for the working class?”

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