Posted at 07:21 PM ET, 07/26/2011
Budget office says Boehner plan falls short; leaders vow to re-work plan
By Felicia Sonmez
(Joshua Roberts - BLOOMBERG) House Speaker John Boehner’s debt-ceiling plan was dealt an unexpected blow late Tuesday when the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that the proposal came up short of the Ohio Republican’s projected figure for spending cuts, one day before the House was set to take up the measure in a high-stakes vote.
The CBO said in a Tuesday night letter to Boehner that the speaker’s plan would achieve about $850 billion in deficit savings over the next decade, not the $1.2 trillion touted by House GOP leadership since the proposal was unveiled Monday night.
A Boehner spokesman said Tuesday night that congressional staffers were currently reviewing ways to rework the measure in order to achieve the amount of cuts originally pledged.
“We’re here to change Washington – no more smoke-and-mirrors, no more ‘phantom cuts,’” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Boehner. “We promised that we will cut spending more than we increase the debt limit – with no tax hikes – and we will keep that promise. As we speak, Congressional staff are looking at options to re-write the legislation to meet our pledge. This is what can happen when you have an actual plan and submit it for independent review – which the Democrats who run Washington have refused to do.”
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