The CBO also evaluated GOP claims that reducing regulation would create jobs and concludes that “the economic effects of those specific changes would probably be too small or would occur too slowly to significantly affect overall output or employment in the next two years.”  The CBO even concluded that some of the policies that the GOP is advocating would lower economic growth and cost jobs.

• The Senate plan received a major boost this morning when Congress’ official scorekeeper confirmed that the plan’s first draft cuts budget deficits more than the Boehner plan. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate draft bill achieves $1.3 trillion more in deficit reduction than the Boehner plan.
• The report also affirms that the Senate plan’s $1 trillion in savings from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are real.
  • This completely undercuts the argument by Republicans who have tried to call these savings a gimmick even though they included them in their own budget and voted for them only a few months ago.
• Plus, since CBO only measured the plan’s first draft—before additional planned savings were incorporated into the bill—the final version of the Senate plan will achieve even deeper savings when it is filed on the floor.
• As Politico reports this morning, “in the battle of budget scores, the Senate Democrats deficit reduction bill is the clear winner thus far over an alternative by Speaker John Boehner.” [Politico, “Reid savings trumps Boehner plan,” 7/27/11]