evidence: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stated that it will produce a report on the budgetary effects of making certain policies in Build Back Better permanent, apparently in response to Senator Lindsey Graham’s request. This report will not show Build Back Better’s true cost, nor will it present a plausible prediction of what Congress would do when considering extending the provisions, as we have explained when assessing similar analyses. The actual fiscal impact of Build Back Better — the House-passed bill, as written — appears to be roughly zero over the next decade, and around $2 trillion in deficit reduction in the subsequent decade. Based on recent history, it is highly unlikely that Congress would permanently extend all of the bill’s temporary provisions without any offsets, which is the assumption that Senator Graham instructed CBO to use for this analysis. [...] - The Build Back Better legislation would reduce the deficit over the second decade (2032-2041). We project that the bill includes roughly $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction over the second decade based on CBO cost analyses, and $2.0 trillion when an extrapolation of Treasury’s estimate of revenues from enforcement funding are used. Even though many spending provisions in the bill are for a finite period, most of the revenue increases and reductions in prescription drug spending are permanent. Congress’s decision to make the deficit-reducing provisions of Build Back Better permanent reflects a deliberate policy choice — one that will reduce widening income and wealth inequality, slow the growth in prescription drug costs, and lessen fiscal challenges facing future policymakers and generations.