Jim Saxton: “this past Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that said the President's health care plan had to be…”

“this past Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that said the President's health care plan had to be part of the Federal budget. This bookkeeping move added an additional $77 billion to the deficit over the next 5 years. The national press reported this story along with the news that the mandated premiums levied on businesses must be called what they really are--taxes. Unfortunately, the CBO report was incomplete. Comparing the CBO report with the JEC report I requested, there was a great difference between the deficit forecasts. The reason, CBO's study assumes that all of the President's price controls and efficiencies will work. In other words it was assumed that cost controls will work perfectly. They did a best-case scenario. Not a true middle-of-the-road projection. Indeed, history has shown that Government fiscal projections are almost never right. In order to get a more realistic estimate of the President's plan, today, I along with more than 60 Members of Congress have requested that the CBO redo their estimates. They should assume no premium caps or other cost controls advocated by the President's plan. If the President's plan is to be the starting point of discussion, the baseline must be credible. And the study's conclusions that have been brought forth must be corrected.”