The Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, exceeded its objective of identifying $880 billion in savings to aid in financing legislation designed to extend President Trump’s tax cuts and other priorities, as reported by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
In a succinct letter addressed to Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), the CBO indicated that the committee’s reconciliation recommendations would lead to a reduction in deficits exceeding $880 billion by 2034 and “would not increase on-budget deficits in any year after 2034.”
The letter did not have any other details about total costs.
The Energy and Commerce Committee introduced its bill on Sunday evening, featuring substantial Medicaid cuts while omitting some of the most contentious proposals for program reform.
GOP committee staff told reporters on Monday they would like to have a full CBO score of the bill in time for Tuesday’s session to amend and advance the bill, but they did not anticipate it would come in time.
The effort to move ahead with a marathon markup of the bill without a full CBO analysis echoes the effort to repeal ObamaCare in 2017. Democrats at the time accused Republicans of trying to hide that a CBO score would reveal that millions of people would lose health insurance.
Late Sunday, Democrats circulated a partial CBO analysis of the committee’s proposal, which found it would reduce federal spending by an estimated $912 billion over the decade — $715 billion from health provisions alone — and cause 8.6 million people to become uninsured.
