On the recordJanuary 21, 2010
The CBO number, as the Senator from Montana knows, has been a moving target because at the end of that debate, they adjusted by about $1/2 trillion the amount they considered the deficit would be reduced. But I point out to the Senator from Montana that, yes, the CBO came out and said that because they are using the trust fund accounting conventions we use here in Washington DC, and that is my whole point. I am not disputing what the CBO has said because legally they are correct because of the way we do it under a unified budget accounting in the trust funds. But as a practical matter, as an economic matter, what the CBO is saying in the statement they issued is, you cannot double-count the money. It is spending the same money twice. You are creating a new entitlement program, which is, under the CBO's estimate, $1 trillion over 10 years but when it is fully implemented, $2.5 trillion.
