CBO Gives Revised Boehner Plan $917 Billion In Deficit Reduction

Yesterday afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner got word from the Congressional Budget Office that his debt plan didn't reduce the deficit by the roughly $1.2 trillion he'd initially promised. Indeed, if enacted, the CBO estimated that Republican plan would only drop the deficit from its current baseline by about $850 billion—less, even, than the $900 billion debt hike to which the cuts were tied—with just $5 billion in cuts during the next fiscal year. So Boehner and his staff called in rewrite.

As of this evening, the revised results are in. CBO now projects that Boehner's proposal would reduce the deficit by about $917 billion, including $22 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, meaning that the total 10-year deficit reduction would match the accompanying debt limit hike on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Despite not reaching even a full trillion bucks in cuts, the Speaker's office is claiming victory: "CBO's analysis confirms that the spending cuts are greater than the debt hike – affirming that the House GOP bill meets the critical test House Republicans have said they will insist upon for any bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling."