The Biden administration and its allies in Congress want to use fast-track rules — budget reconciliation — to push their $3.5 trillion spending plan through the House and Senate, with votes possible in both chambers within weeks. They seem to believe that a more deliberative and careful process will not be helpful to their cause. Perhaps that is because there are many legitimate and unanswered questions about its contents and merits, and also about the rushed process for considering it.
Proponents of the emerging plan are trying to build political momentum by touting its historic significance. In reality, the bill is more of the same, in that it creates scores of new entitlement programs that will expand and grow over time. This formula has been repeated frequently over the past half-century. Even so, the emerging bill does stand out for its high initial cost ($3.5 trillion over ten years), and for that reason deserves especially heavy scrutiny.
The following are just three of the many questions that should be addressed before Congress proceeds any further.
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