House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is touting new and improved Congressional Budget Office estimates of his plan to raise the debt limit. I'll be holding off on making comparisons to the previous report until I see the actual CBO letter, because I want to make sure I'm using apples to apples numbers. But here's what Boehner says:
- Cut and cap spending by $917 billion over 10 years – that’s more than the $900 billion debt hike;
- Cut $22 billion in spending for FY2012 and hold spending below FY2010 levels until FY2016;
- Continue reducing discretionary spending each year compared to President Obama’s budget (by $96 billion in 2012, $118 billion in 2013, $115 billion in 2014, $117 billion in 2015, and so on); and
- Require Congress to draft proposals that produce reductions of at least $1.8 trillion that help protect programs like Medicare and Social Security from bankruptcy.
UPDATE: Now the actual CBO letter is out. It says the bill reduces deficits by $915 billion over 10 years (compared to $851 billion in the first version) and 2012 deficits by $22 billion (as compared to $1 billion in the previous version).
