Moderate Democrats are saying they're waiting for a report from the Congressional Budget Office before saying for sure if they'll vote for the "Build Back Better" spending bill, but Rep. David Kustoff told Newsmax Wednesday that there would not be enough time to digest what's in the report, which is due out Friday, even if the vote is pushed back to the weekend.
"We could be voting on Thursday before that full CBO report, that score, comes out," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report." "It's really kind of a false proposition, if you will. They're going through the motions."
All Republicans in the House will likely vote against the spending bill, so the real question is if any moderate Democrats will be "spooked" by the CBO's score if they get it, Kustoff added.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told CNN Tuesday that she remains undecided on the bill and wants to see the CBO score before she decides, but other Democrats said they don't think the score will change their minds.
The House Democrat leaders can lose no more than three votes on the bill to get it passed.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden, speaking in New Hampshire Tuesday, said he's sure the House and Senate will pass it within a week, and that it will reduce the deficit in the long term. He also said that nobody making less than $400,000 will pay more in federal taxes.
Kustoff said he does not believe Biden.
"President Biden's poll numbers are tanking all across the country," he said. "When he makes statements like that, that it's not going to cost anything and no tax increases on individuals and middle-class Americans, nobody buys that. They don't take that seriously. Yeah when I go home right now, I'm hearing a lot of complaints. First and foremost is inflation the cost of everything from gas to food to cars, you name it, along with supply chain."
And with the Democrats already passing more than $3 trillion in spending this year, adding another $1.75 trillion to that will just increase inflation, said Kustoff.
"The more money that the federal government authorizes and prints more than adds to the record inflation," he added. "The 30-year number that we saw last week, 6.2%, it's concerning and it's hitting people right in their pocketbooks, and we know that's their number one issue and their number one concern."
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