WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government report estimates that the big spending bill passed into law last month will cut the deficit by $122 billion over the next decade — less than half what senior lawmakers predicted.
Speaker John Boehner had touted the legislation as reducing the deficit by more than $300 billion over a ten-year span. The Ohio Republican pointed to an analysis by a Senate aide in promising that the $38 billion in cuts this year would translate into $315 billion over a decade.
The Congressional Budget Office study also says that, because of military spending, the bill negotiated between Boehner and President Barack Obama actually increases the deficit this year by $3.2 billion.