The $2 Trillion Is Phony Too

Democrats say they’re working hard to pare back their $3.5 trillion tax and spending bill to $2 trillion to please House and Senate dissenters, but don’t believe it. What they’re really doing is working hard to pack $4 trillion in new programs into a $2 trillion disguise that sounds less radical than it is.

That’s the message from news reports that the White House on Tuesday offered Congressional Democrats a plan that retains nearly all of the entitlement programs they originally proposed. Instead of reducing this vast expansion of the welfare state, Democrats are merely increasing their use of budget gimmicks to pretend to fit them into a 10-year budget window. It’s still a mammoth fiscal confidence trick.

The leaks are piecemeal and the talks are fluid. But so far it looks like the White House is continuing to accommodate progressive demands and then bludgeon swing-district Members to go along. “Overall, almost every priority is included,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), a progressive leader, was quoted as saying. President Biden and Nancy Pelosi previously said they preferred to fully fund fewer programs. But they retreated, as usual, under progressive pressure.