Good Luck with All Those Amendments

by Tevi Troy  •  Sep 22, 2009 at 10:41 am
Cross-posted from National Review Online: Critical Condition

http://www.tevitroy.org/2009/09/good-luck-with-all-those-amendments

The Wall Street Journal reports that:

The Congressional Budget Office said the Baucus bill would cost $774 billion over a decade and reduce the federal budget deficit by $49 billion in that period. The Montana Democrat said in an interview that $28 billion — more than half of the funds now dedicated to deficit reduction — could be diverted to pay for changes that would help shore up support.

Senator Baucus's key talking point has been that he was able to convince CBO to score his bill as revenue neutral, and he even had a $49 billion cushion. Today his committee will start looking at over 500 amendments, many, if not most, of which would increase the package's cost, and he has already given up more than half his cushion, before even starting the meeting. I will be very curious to see the CBO score after the committee session is over.

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