New CBO Estimate on Affordable Care Act and Deficits

WED FEB 23, 2011 AT 09:30 AM EST
New CBO estimate on Affordable Care Act and deficits
byJoan McCarter
Via Steve Benen the CBO has a new estimate on what it would cost in terms of deficit to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Jon Cohn has the details.

The Congressional Budget Office has delivered an official estimate of what repealing the Affordable Care Act would do to the federal budget. According to CBO's estimates, the deficit would rise by $210 billion in the first decade:
H.R. 2 would, on net, increase federal deficits over the next decade because the net savings from eliminating the coverage provisions would be more than offset by the combination of other spending increases and revenue reductions.
In total, CBO and JCT estimate that H.R. 2 would reduce outlays by about $604 billion and reduce revenues by about $813 billion over the 2012-2021 period.

This is twice the estimate the CBO made last year, when it projected the effects of a similar repeal bill. Why the difference? Because it's a year later and the projection period extends through 2021 rather than 2011. Remember, the law is designed to save more money as time goes on.

Not that you needed more proof that the GOP's deficit hawkery is a sham, and a scam. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, they voted to block funding to the ACA. Which means they voted to increase the deficit by $210 billion in the next decade.