A revised version of House Speaker John Boehner’s deficit reduction plan would reduce budget deficits by about $915 billion over 10 years through FY2021, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday evening.
That confirms that spending cuts in the bill are greater than the $900 billion debt hike it would allow, as Boehner had promised in any legislation to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
A CBO finding analysis of the earlier version of the Republican bill released on Tuesday showed it was $150 billion below its advertised savings. Significantly, the new plan would include an additional $21 billion in cuts over fiscal year 2012 – a move that will likely sway members initially hesitant about supporting a plan that originally proposed just $1 billion in frontloaded cuts. The new bill would cap spending at FY2010 levels through FY2016.
The news that CBO re-scored the bill comes after a tense day for the Republican caucus on the Hill. During meetings with members Boehner emphatically insister that his members line up behind his debt-ceiling plan and not reject "the doable for the perfect."
Meanwhile, the Republican Study Committee apologized to members after a staffer sent "inappropriate e-mail to outside groups that identified members of Congress he believed were undecided on the debt-reduction proposal offered by the speaker," committee spokesman Brian Straessle said.
“This has never been--and never will be--the way we do business at the RSC. We apologize to everyone affected, and we have already taken steps to ensure that it never happens again, either by this staffer or any other RSC staffer,” Straessle said.
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