Team Biden clings to reconciliation bill zero-cost claim shot down by Washington Post fact-checkers

President Biden and his team have tripled down on the claim that his Build Back Better agenda "costs zero dollars" despite loud condemnations from The Washington Post fact-checker, budget analysts and at least one columnist who supports the infrastructure bills associated with the agenda.

Cedric Richmond, Biden's senior adviser, repeated the claim on Sunday, saying the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill – which Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have stalled – will cost nothing. "I think what's important for people to understand is that this piece of legislation costs zero," Richmond said. "We're going to pay for it all by raising taxes on the very wealthy and big corporations."

Yet multiple analysts have rebutted the claim. The Washington Post's fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, noted that lawmakers "play all sorts of budget games to achieve that mythical zero within the 10-year budget framework." He called Biden's claim "misleading," giving the president "Two Pinocchios" and noting that the number of Pinocchios "could grow higher."