Graham says Democrats must ‘quit lying’ about Build Back Better, calls for House to revote

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) on Sunday said Democrats must “quit lying” about the cost of the Build Back Better Act and called for the House to revote on the massive social spending package.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Graham claimed that the electric vehicle tax credits included in the bill would exacerbate inflation and hurt companies such as BMW and Volvo. Both companies recently announced commitments to roll out new electric vehicles, with Volvo aiming to be all electric by 2030.

“The last thing I’m going to do is add more burdens to working families in South Carolina. And here’s my message to the Democratic Party: Quit lying about this bill. They should revote it in the House,” said Graham. “We need to stop Build Back Better before it destroys this country.”

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released last week estimated that the Build Back Better Act would increase the federal deficit by $3 trillion over 10 years if all of the included provisions were made permanent. 

“There is not a plan to pay for it. If there is, I missed it, so give it to me. Give it to the American people before we vote in the Senate. Show me how you pay for this bill,” Graham said on Sunday.

The South Carolina senator also mentioned that Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) had told him the bill was full of “gimmicks.”

It was reported last week that Graham was hoping to sway Manchin against voting for the social spending package by using numbers from the CBO report, which White House press secretary Jen Psaki referred to as a “fake CBO score.”

“I would also note that there’s a particular irony here that it shouldn’t be lost on Sen. Graham — maybe it is lost on Sen. Graham; I don’t know — that the plan they proposed and passed for and passed into law, the 2017 tax cuts, were $2 trillion, which were not paid for in any way, shape or form. That didn’t seem to upset them at all,” Psaki said during a briefing.

When pressed on Sunday on his decision to pass the 2017 tax cuts, Graham shot back, asking host Chris Wallace, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“We voted knowing that cutting taxes we believe would be good. I never said that cutting taxes … I voted for cutting taxes. I’m against expanding the government,” said Graham.