Democrats expect CBO to show shortfall on Biden's bill as White House moves to ease concerns

The White House and top Democrats are expecting a highly anticipated estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to show that their sweeping plan to expand the social safety net will fail to meet President Joe Biden's promise to not add to the federal deficit.

But behind the scenes, they have been launching a preemptive strike for weeks to prepare their colleagues for that likelihood, arguing that the CBO numbers would diverge from the White House's projections that $320 billion would be raised by increased tax enforcement, a difference the administration says stems from the different methods used to calculate the revenue gained.

The question now facing Democratic leaders is whether those assurances from the White House will be enough to assuage moderates, who have withheld their support for the roughly $1.9 trillion bill until information from the CBO show its costs are offset.