Quick Fact: Hemmer baselessly cites “critics” calling health care reform a “budget-buster”

Written by Terry Krepel

Published

Fox News host Bill Hemmer stated that “critics” of the Senate health care reform bill “say it's a budget-buster that leaves taxpayers in America on the hook for years to come,” and subsequently interviewed Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who said that the bill is a reason “we're headed towards a situation where we're not even going to be able to afford to pay the debt we've run up as a nation.” But Hemmer at no point noted that the Congressional Budget Office reported that the Senate's health reform bill will reduce federal deficits by $130 billion through 2019.

From the December 22 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom:

HEMMER: Critics of that $871 billion health care measure say it's a budget-buster that leaves taxpayers in America on the hook for years to come.

[...]

HEMMER: Senator, good morning to you, and thanks for coming back on our program. Is there any Monopoly money left in that town?

GREGG: No, there isn't. It would be nice if we were concerned about the short run too because basically, within the next 24 hours or 48 hours, we're about to spend $2.3 trillion we don't have. That's $2.3 trillion. You're going to take the size of the government up significantly, and as a result, we're going to pass on to our kids a government they can't afford. It's going to reduce their standard of living, and we're headed towards a situation where we're not even going to be able to afford to pay the debt we've run up as a nation, and we're headed toward some serious times -- fiscal times ahead.

FACT: CBO projected Senate health bill would reduce deficit

CBO: Bill yields “a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion” over 10 years. From CBO's December 19 cost estimate of the Senate bill incorporating the manager's amendment:

CBO and JCT estimate that, on balance, the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager's amendment would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period.

CBO expects bill to continue deficit reduction during decade after 2019. CBO also estimated on December 20 that the bill will continue to reduce the deficit beyond the 10-year budget window that ends in 2019 “with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP.”