June 16,2009

Press Contact:

Jill Kozeny, 202/224-1308

Jill Gerber, 202/224-6522

Grassley: CBO Says White House, Health Industry’s $2 Trillion Savings Pledge Doesn’t Materialize

Last month, several health care groups met with the President at the White House and pledged to save $2 trillion in health care costs. Today the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a document saying that many of the industry proposals cannot be scored because they do not affect government programs, or are not detailed enough, and the programs that can be scored generate far less than $2 trillion in savings. Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, made the following comment on this finding.

“As predicted, the $2 trillion savings pledge didn’t materialize from CBO’s perspective. The headlines generated by the White House event a month ago don’t get us much closer to affording health care reform today.”

The CBO document is available at http://www.cbo.gov/.

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