Lindsey Graham gets debunked after claiming Build Back Better adds $3 trillion to the deficit

Like many other Republican lawmakers, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is echoing a false claim about President Joe Biden's Build Back Better initiative and how it will add trillions of dollars to the United States deficit.

Now, fact-checkers are pushing back against the lawmaker's baseless claims explaining why he is incorrect in his assertions. The pushback against Graham follows his recent remarks during an appearance on Fox News.

On Sunday, the senator from South Carolina spoke with soon-departing Fox News host Chris Wallace where he claimed Democrats have been relatively deceptive about the price tag for the extensive piece of legislation.

"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it's not paid for. It's $3 trillion of deficit spending. It's not $1.75 trillion over 10 years, it's $4.9 trillion."

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He added, "What does this mean? The House should re-vote. The vote in the House was based on a fraud. This bill doesn't cost $1.75 trillion, it costs almost $5 trillion. It doesn't add $300 billion to the deficit, it adds $3 trillion. There is not a plan to pay for it."

Politifact senior correspondents Louis Jacobson and Jon Greenberg have broken down the lawmaker's remarks and the deception in Graham's claims about the deficit increase while highlighting the inaccuracies he mentioned during the interview: "Graham is incorrect. The bill passed by the House and now in the Senate’s hands costs about $1.75 trillion, and, according to CBO figures, would add $158 billion to the deficit over 10 years, not $3 trillion. (President Joe Biden and other Democrats say even that smaller deficit would evaporate thanks to IRS crackdowns on tax evaders.)"

They added, "Graham is saying the deficit would be 20 times larger than the bill at hand. That’s like the difference between a grape and a big cantaloupe."

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has further explained about the source of Graham's claims: "These estimates do not reflect what is actually written in the Build Back Better Act nor its official cost for scorekeeping purposes. Lawmakers may choose to allow some provisions to expire, to extend some as written, and to modify some."

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