'It Doesn't Cost Zero': Chris Wallace Pushes Back Against Democrats' Myths

As President Joe Biden pledges to bridge the divide between those who want an immediate vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and radicals determined to block legislation until they get the highest profligate social spending possible, Biden’s allies took to the Sunday shows.

.@rickklein describes the “mistrust” among the Democratic caucus, telling @jonkarl that "they really don’t like each other. They don’t believe in each other’s same political motives.” https://t.co/i0aPMjiNKh pic.twitter.com/tvKmNjt0e2

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) October 3, 2021

”We need to deliver for the American people,” Cedric Richmond, a senior presidential advisor, told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. “And so, what we have work to do is make sure that Senator Manchin understands how this affects the future in terms of making sure that we invest in American families so that they can determine their own destiny. We think we have unity of purpose with Senator Manchin. That’s what the president does best and that is to talk to Senator Manchin and make sure that he understands the entire vision why we need to do it and what amount.”

But when Richmond echoed the Democrat lie that trillions of dollars actually equal zero, Wallace interrupted, explaining, “It doesn’t cost zero. Whether it’s $3.5 trillion or $2 trillion, it — or $1.5 trillion, whatever, it costs that amount of money. Now, you can pay for it either by borrowing it or you can pay for it by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but it doesn’t cost zero.”

Chris Wallace fact checks Biden Adviser Cedric Richmond: "It doesn't cost zero. Whether it's $3.5 trillion, or $2 trillion…it costs that amount of money." pic.twitter.com/czJFdofs7h

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 3, 2021

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a self-described progressive capitalist from a district as left-wing as it is wealthy, followed Richmond and claimed that 95 percent of Democrats are with Biden.

“He wrote those bills. And that is his vision. His vision is we want people to have child care. We want people to have community college. We want folks to get dental and vision,” Khanna muttered. “You know who created the wealth over the last year, where all the wealth is going? It’s in my district. I mean, Silicon Valley has done terrific over the pandemic. And I’m saying, why don’t we tax some folks who have made millions of dollars with the digitization of the economy so we can help so many parts of this country, rural America, places that have been left behind, frankly, places in West Virginia that need investment in industrialization, in the new jobs, in child care.”

Yet even socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders now confesses the price tag is extravagant, causing Republicans to ponder why the delay exists.

“When a bipartisan bill passed a 50/50 Senate, it had 69 votes. It was a lot of momentum on its side. In any kind of a normal world, that would’ve been signed into law by the president,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Sunday on the Democrats’ divide. “Now we’re at a point where the president is weak and Biden has now walked the plank for the socialist Bernie Sanders’ budget. He’s man overboard and he can’t swim.”

This idea was reiterated by Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks, who argued, “The Democrat Party today is Bernie Sanders’ Democrat Party, is not our grandpa’s Democrat Party. That’s why [Sen. Kyrsten] Sinema and [Rep. Joshua] Gottheimer and [Sen. Joe] Manchin are so frustrated because they know…that the majority of America does not want to become a socialist country, but the socialist Democrats control their party.”