John Spratt: “Dr. Crippen sent me two tables in response to my request. Under his letter of October 28, he said, CBO has also…”

“Dr. Crippen sent me two tables in response to my request. Under his letter of October 28, he said, CBO has also calculated the across-the-board cut that would be necessary to eliminate the estimated on-budget deficit, the deficit without Social Security, for this year under two scenarios. Table 2 presents their estimate of what would be necessary in the way of across-the-board cuts to wipe out this deficit of $17.1 billion that otherwise will come out of Social Security. He said, if you cut completely across the board, defense, veterans, everything, it will take a 4.8 percent across-the-board cut, not a .97 percent cut but a 4.8 percent. Now, he said if you cut 4.8 percent, you are going to wipe out the pay raise and everything that you have provided for personnel this year, important initiatives in the defense bill. Your initiative to get $1.7 billion of additional funding for veterans health care will be largely wiped out. So if you exclude veterans health care and if you exclude defense programs, the across-the-board cut would have to be 10.8 percent, not 1 percent or .97 percent. It would have to be 10.8 percent. So the whole 1 percent across-the-board cut is a ruse. According to the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Dan Crippen, the minimal cut would be 4.8 percent in order to rectify these books and stay out of Social Security.”