You know, If John Boehner would only stand up to the TEABAGGERS he might have a chance to NOT go down in history as a complete fool.
Well, since he IS a complete fool, maybe it is only Karma at work.
From The Huffington Post: Sam Stein
CBO: Boehner Debt Plan Saves $850 Billion Over Ten Years, Just $1 Billion In 2012
WASHINGTON -- The debt ceiling deal introduced by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would save, by one measure, roughly $850 billion over the course of ten years and just $1 billion in 2012 -- two metrics unlikely to satisfy the most conservative members of his conference.
The Congressional Budget Office, which is the official scorekeeper of legislation, released its analysis of the Budget Control Act of 2011 on Tuesday afternoon. The findings were damaging enough that an hour later, Boehner's office told reporters it would rewrite the bill to achieve a more favorable scoring. Measured against March 2011 government expenditure levels, the proposal, as currently written, would reduce the deficit by $850 billion during the next decade, according to the CBO. Measured against January 2011 government spending levels, the bill would reduce budget deficits by roughly $1.1 trillion during that same time period.
The findings are a setback of sorts for the speaker, who was hoping to present a package of steep cuts to a skeptical GOP. In the end, however, he is a victim of his own success. The reason that the CBO adjusted its baseline is, in part, because of the spending cuts that Boehner was able to secure during the government shut down debate during the spring.
Potentially more problematic for Boehner is the finding that his debt ceiling package will only reduce federal spending by $1 billion in 2012, and $16 billion in 2013. House Republicans have demanded that deep cuts be felt immediately as a condition for their support.
"Americans deserve immediate spending cuts that demonstrate that we are charting a swift path toward a balanced budget. We must implement discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year," read a May 2011 letter from the conservative Republican Study Committee.
"[A]ny move to raise the debt limit must be accompanied by immediate spending cuts and binding reforms so that we don’t continue to push our country down the road to bankruptcy," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in early May.
Boehner himself has repeatedly echoed those statements. Earlier this month, he specifically pushed back against a suggestion by Democrats that the majority of spending cuts could be concentrated in future years, rather than begin immediately.
Posted: 7/26/11 07:16 PM ET