• e-mail

President Joe Biden touted his infrastructure bill as a victory for 'ordinary people' on Tuesday and insisted the next item on his agenda - his $1.85 trillion budget of social programs - would be fully paid for even though the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says it won't be. 

'Everything in this bill matters to individual lives of real people. This is not something abstract,' Biden said of the $1 trillion bipartisan bill he signed into law on Monday. It focuses on traditional infrastructure projects.

Speaking on a cold New Hampshire day as flurries of snow rained down, Biden said: 'This isn't some gigantic bill. It is but it's about what happens to ordinary people, conversations around those kitchen tables that are both profound as they are ordinary. How do I cross a bridge in a snowstorm?'

He called the legislation a prime example of how Democrats and Republicansw, when 'we can work together we can deliver real results.'

Biden spoke on the NH 175 Bridge in Woodstock, New Hampshire, a large American flag hanging behind him and snow flakes falling around him. He was joined by his new infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu and several New Hampshire politicians.

The bridge, built in 1939, is an aging iron bridge over the Pemigewassett River that is on the 'red list' of state bridges needing repair. New Hampshire will receive $225 million for bridges from the infrastructure bill, the White House said. 

He also touted his Build Back Better bill - the next item on his congressional agenda. He again vowed it will be fully paid for amid a new report that it may not be.

'I'm confident that the House is going to pass this bill and when it passes it will go to the Senate. I think we'll get it passed within a week as fully paid for. It'll reduce the deficit over the long term, as I said, and again, no one making less than 400 grand on a single penny more in federal taxes,' he said.

President Biden touted his infrastructure bill as a victory for 'ordinary people'; he spoke on the the NH 175 bridge over the Pemigewasset River as snow flurries fell

President Biden worked the rope lie and took selfies after his speech

President Joe Biden (C) flanked by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (2nd L), Senator Maggie Hassan (L), Representative Annie Kuster (3rd L), Representative Chris Pappas (2nd L)and New Hampshire Department of Transportation Commissioner Victoria Sheehan (L) on the NH 175 bridge over the Pemigewasset River in Woodstock, New Hampshire

President Biden speaks to supporters after his remarks

The House is scheduled to begin debate on the bill on Wednesday and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is vowing not to let lawmakers go home for Thanksgiving until it's past. It faces a more uphill climb in the Senate, where moderate Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema worry about its price tag. 

Meanwhile, the White House is going after the Congressional Budget Office, attacking the nonpartisan agency for its analysis that President Biden's $1.85 trillion spending package of social programs won't be fully paid for. 

The CBO is likely to find that the cost of the overall package will not be fully paid for with new tax revenue over the coming decade, The New York Times reported. 

To pay for the plan, the Biden administration is depending on having a strengthened Internal Revenue Service crack down on tax evaders, which the White House says will raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.

The director of the nonpartisan CBO said on Monday that increasing the power of the IRS to go after tax evaders will yield far less than what the White House was counting on to help pay for its bill - about $120 billion over a decade versus the $400 billion the administration estimated.

A formal tally is expected to be released on Friday.

Senior administration officials are advising lawmakers to disregard the CBO assessment, saying the budget agency doesn't have experience 'analyzing revenue amounts from cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.'

'There has been wide agreements on the part of everyone involved - moderates liberals, etc. - that CBO does not have experience analyzing revenue amounts gained from cracking down on wealthy tax cheats, who are taking advantage of every honest taxpayer,' deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said duing a briefing with reporters on Tuesday. 

'There's a huge body of work,' Bates said, 'from economic experts — including Republican former Treasury secretaries, IRS commissioners who have served under presidents of both parties, as well as Larry Summers, with whom we have sometimes had important differences — affirming that, if anything, our estimates lowball how much revenue can be brought in by cracking down on rich tax cheats.' 

The House is expected to begin debate on the Build Back Better package on Wednesday with an eye to passing it at the end of the week. 

It is expected to undergo several changes in the Senate though the amendment process. 

President Joe Biden (3rd L) flanked by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) (2nd L), Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) (L), Representative Annie Kuster(D-NH)(3rd R), Representative Chris Pappas (D-NH)(R) and New Hampshire Department of Transportation Commissioner Victoria Sheehan (2nd R), departs after his speech

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, greets President Joe Biden as he arrives in Manchester

Joe Biden and his new czar Mitch Landrieu leaving the White House for New Hampshire

Lawmakers rely on the CBO 'score,' as its known, to determine how much a bill will cost tax payers. Manchin, in particular, has voiced concerns the package could add to the national debt and spike inflation. 

Democrats cannot lose a single vote in the 50-50 Senate. Bates expressed confidence the plan would get them.

'This is something that has been known for months and everyone is on the same page,' he said.  

Republicans are opposed to Biden's plan to give the IRS an additional $80 billion over the next ten years to increase their power, warning it will weaponized against conservatives and target ordinary taxpayers. 

Meanwhile, Tuesday marked Biden's first visit to New Hampshire since February 2020 when he left the state in the late afternoon before the primary polls closed. He finished fifth in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary but he did beat Donald Trump there in the general election. 

He has an underwater approval rating in the state. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll in October found Granite Staters viewed him unfavorably by 48 per cent and favorably by 38 per cent.

The trips kicks off a week-long administration-wide effort to promote the bipartisan infrastructure law, which Biden signed at ceremony in the White House on Monday, surrounded by Democratic and Republican lawmakers. 

Biden will be in Detroit on Wednesday and, on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris will go to Columbus, Ohio, while Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg goes to Arizona. 

Expect Democrats to tout its benefits and the major legislative victory as part of their re-election message in next year's midterm election.