House and Senate spending and tax reconciliation bills fall short of the savings targets set in the budget deal with the administration, according to the Senate Budget Committee, the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Summarizing CBO estimates on entitlement reform budget reconciliation bills, the GOP staff of the Senate Budget Committee reported the House bill would save $132.4 billion over five years while the Senate bill would save $125.5 billion over that period.
The budget deal calls for $137.2 billion in five-year savings, meaning the House bill is $5 billion short of the target and the Senate bill is $12 billion short. For 2002, the final year of the bill, the House bill is $2.3 billion short and the Senate bill $7.2 billion short in savings.
The Budget Committee's staff said the two chambers fell short of the budget deal's targets in several areas.
The Senate failed to meet the savings target on spectrum programs by $7.3 billion, while the House missed the target by $3.8 billion. In addition, both bills failed to meet Medicaid reduction targets by between $2 billion and $3 billion, the panel staff said. The House met welfare spending targets, but the Senate spent $2 billion more than the budget accord called for. However, the Senate made up for the difference by exceeding Medicare savings by $3 billion.
The committee staff also said that, combined with programs in the tax bill, the Senate spent $53.4 billion more on Medicaid and children's health programs than the budget deal anticipated. As part of its package, the Senate adopted a 20-cents-per-pack cigarette tax to help pay for children's health programs.
On taxes, the House bill spent about $100 million more on the net tax cut than called for in the budget deal, the Senate panel said, summarizing conclusions by the CBO and the JCT. The Senate bill cut taxes by some $78 billion and took advantage of the $7 billion in savings by increasing children's health programs by $8 billion and Amtrak spending by $2.3 billion--resulting in the Senate bill exceeding its target.
"Either the new spending for Amtrak cannot be triggered or the increased spending in the bill for children's health will have to be reduced, or a combination of both," the Senate Budget panel's GOP staff concluded.
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