White House Daily Briefing

From the White House Briefing Room, White House Budget Director Leon Panetta and Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen updated the media on deficit reduction. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that for Fiscal Year 1995 the budget deficit would be less than $171 billion. This was a 40-percent decrease from the CBO’s estimate the previous year. The CBO deficit numbers, which did not factor in health reform, escalated to $365 billion by the year 2004 because of sharp increases in Medicare and Medicaid spending. “The message was simple: With health care reform, we get that deficit headed down, and without it, it shoots right straight up,” said Secretary Bentsen. Media questions focused on these topics: the credibility of the CBO’s deficit projections; the impact of health care reform on the deficit; preventing the Senate from passing the balanced budget amendment; and the current economic situation in Russia. close