United Liberty

I noted yesterday that the budget reductions in the Congressional Budget Office’s latest score of ObamaCare were, according to their own report, “subject to substantial uncertainty.” It seems that the CBO is already backing away from their estimates:

The Congressional Budget Office said Sunday that the Senate health care bill would not reduce long-term federal deficits as much as previously estimated, acknowledging that it made an “error” in its original analysis.

CBO Director Doug Elmendorf wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that while the correction has no bearing on estimates for the impact of the bill over the next decade, it does slightly reduce the amount of money the plan is expected to save for the 2020-2029 period.

The original estimate said the health care overhaul would yield deficit reductions worth about one-half percent of GDP — the revision put that figure between one-quarter and one-half percent.

He also wrote that savings from Medicare cuts and changes would add up to about 10 to 15 percent per year in that period, compared with the 15 percent savings in the original projection.

Elmendorf said the legislation should still reduce budget deficits after 2019 — but just not as much.

Medicare cuts will never happen. Write it down now. When it comes to reducing entitlement spending, Congress almost never acts. There will be no reductions in deficits from this bill.