The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : CBO: Baucus Bill Would Reduce Deficit By $49 Billion

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The Spectacle Blog

CBO: Baucus Bill Would Reduce Deficit By $49 Billion

By Philip Klein on 9.16.09 @ 6:00PM

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Max Baucus health care proposal will reduce the deficit by $49 billion over 10 years. Peter Suderman notes that despite the CBO's many caveats (mainly involving the fact that all of the savings it calls for may never actually get implemented), it's still the best break proponents of health care legislation have gotten in months. I agree in the sense that Baucus has shown that it's possible to get a good score from the CBO on a health care bill, but the problem for Democrats is that Baucus achieved this score with a proposal that ditches the government plan, offers less generous subsidies than other Democratic bills, and imposes a tax on high-end health plans that unions passionately object to. It's a plan that may score well with the CBO, but that hasn't been able to pass muster with liberals.

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MarkJ| 9.16.09 @ 8:20PM

Seems to me the problems with Baucus' "savings" is that they'll simply be wiped out by the next round of bailouts, monetization of debt, Cap 'n' Tax, most any other pet Obamazoid pet project, and--most importantly--a totally unexpected natural or "man-made" catastrophe.

In other words, we'd get more "savings" from Max Baucus' plan by simply declaring it D.O.A. and going back to the drawing board.

Centrist| 9.23.09 @ 3:13PM

"(mainly involving the fact that all of the savings it calls for may never actually get implemented)"
Gee... we all know how good congress is at cutting the costs it says it will.... and saving money for that matter....
sort of like the "automatic" cuts that were supposed to take place since 2003 that both parties have overridden...
or the 'balanced budget' amendment that they just hold a vote to override because you kn0w its 'an emergency'
newt atleast had the guts to force balanced budgets by threat of gov't shutdown... cost him his job but its what got bill clinton so much praise