Fox uncritically quotes Boehner falsely claiming health care reform would “bankrupt” U.S.

From the September 9 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:

HEMMER: Also, the man hoping to be the next house speaker vowing to kill the health care reform law. House minority leader John Boehner telling a newspaper in Cincinnati saying he will repeal or block funding for the new law before it “bankrupts” the country, his words from yesterday.

CBO: Health care reform reduces the federal deficit

CBO in March: Health care reform law will reduce deficit by $143 billion over next ten years, and by more in second decade. The CBO determined in March that the two health care bills signed into law that month “would produce a net reduction in federal deficits of $143 billion over the 2010-2019 period.” The CBO also estimates a further reduction in the second decade after enactment “with a total effect during that decade in a broad range around one-half percent of GDP.”

In June, CBO reiterated that health care reform reduces the deficit. The June 30 CBO long-term budget outlook stated that if the health care reform law is implemented as written, it will “increase projected revenues, particularly in the 2030s and beyond, thus slowing the accumulation of debt considerably.” The CBO also noted in a footnote of its June outlook that although the law will increase federal spending on health care in the next two decades, it will also “reduce budget deficits over the 2010-2019 period and in subsequent years.”

In August, CBO “confirm[ed]” its findings. In an August 24 letter to Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), CBO director Doug Elmendorf wrote:

First, we can confirm the estimate of the overall impact on the federal budget of the major health care legislation enacted in March. Specifically, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA (Public Law 111-148) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152) will produce $143 billion in net budgetary savings over the 2010-2019 period.1 That figure includes $124 billion in net savings for the health and revenue provisions of both laws and $19 billion in net savings for the education provisions of the Reconciliation Act.