Last updated Nov 29, 2025
Prediction
Friedberg
politicsgovernment
The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill will be passed, and in addition, a roughly $1.75 trillion social spending bill will also be enacted.
Well, it's going to along with this now 1.75 million, sorry, 1.75 trillion of this new social spending billView on YouTube
Explanation

Friedberg’s prediction had two parts: (1) the ~$1.2T infrastructure bill would pass, and (2) an additional ~$1.75T social spending bill would also be enacted.

  1. Infrastructure bill: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), with about $1.2 trillion in total spending, passed Congress and was signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. (en.wikipedia.org)
    → This part of the prediction was correct.

  2. $1.75T social spending bill: The separate social-spending package—commonly referred to as the Build Back Better Act—was structured around roughly $1.75 trillion in spending and passed the House on November 19, 2021, but it never passed the Senate. Senator Joe Manchin ultimately rejected the bill, and it was never enacted into law. (en.wikipedia.org)

    Later negotiations produced the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which adopted some climate, healthcare, and tax provisions from Build Back Better but excluded most of the social safety-net programs and was far smaller in new spending (hundreds of billions, not $1.75T). (en.wikipedia.org)
    → So the specific “roughly $1.75 trillion social spending bill” Friedberg referred to was not enacted.

Because the prediction was conjunctive—both the $1.2T infrastructure bill and a ~$1.75T social spending bill needed to be enacted—and only the first occurred, the overall prediction is wrong.