Obama Revenue Figure Well Below Bowles-Simpson

President Obama has called for $1.6 trillion in new revenue over ten years as part of a deficit-reduction package.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that this is more than the Bowles-Simpson commission recommended.  Actually, it’s a lot less.

As our report “What Was Actually in Bowles-Simpson?” explains, Bowles-Simpson called for $2.6 trillion in new revenue over the 2013-2022 period.  A new Center for American Progress report has a similar estimate:  $2.7 trillion.

Bowles-Simpson also called for nearly $2.9 trillion of program cuts, about half of which have already been enacted.  This means that most of the plan’s not-yet-achieved savings are on the revenue side.  Excluding the enacted savings, Bowles-Simpson would achieve an additional $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years (including $0.6 trillion in lower interest costs), which would consist of $1 in program cuts for every $2 in revenue increases.