On the recordJanuary 21, 2010
The CBO came out and said that the budget deficit would be reduced by $132 billion over the first 10 years. But the point I made earlier is that included, of course, a lot of gimmicks that were used, including taxes began immediately, spending that does not occur until 4 years later, counting revenue from--for example, not taking care of the physician fee increase, which we know is a $250 billion to $350 billion cost which at some point the government is going to have to deal with, as well as creating a new entitlement program called the CLASS Act, under which the CBO assumed about $72 billion of savings in the first 10 years, which they also said would generate deficits in the outyears. So the Senator from Montana may be correct legally under the conventions that are used in trust funds under a unified budget, but as a practical matter, and this is what I think the American people understand and what as an economic matter I understand, you cannot use the same revenue twice. And if you have revenues coming in from Medicare cuts and Medicare payroll tax increases, and you are saying we are going to use those to finance this expansion, this new health care entitlement, and at the same time we are going to use those to preserve and extend the lifespan of Medicare, most people would say you cannot do that. What the CBO said in this statement is, it is double-counting. It is spending the same revenue twice.
