Kessler: How The Affordable Care Act Reduces The Deficit

Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post details, looking at whether the sequester or Obamacare does more to reduce the deficit.

In Table 1-7, the CBO’s 2013 Budget and Economic Outlook shows that the sequester accounts for roughly $42 billion in deficit reduction in the 2014 fiscal year. (Sequester, a 10-year straight line reduction in discretionary spending, did not start until almost half of the fiscal year was over, so the savings really become apparent in 2014.)

Meanwhile, CBO in 2010 estimated that the Affordable Care Act would reduce the deficit by $41 billion in 2013. (The original $56 billion estimate included savings from a provision that has been dropped and also from unrelated changes in student loans, so we have removed those items to arrive that this figure.) Reductions in Medicare spending were responsible for a large part of the deficit reduction in 2013; the law will not be fully implemented until 2014…

In the immediate future, the sequester will reduce deficit more, but after the next eight or so years, the Affordable Care Act is deemed to have a greater long-term impact, according to the CBO.

 

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.