On Friday, while the House of Representatives was debating spending bills for the current year, the Congressional Budget Office was assessing some legislation being promoted by the Republican majority.

For example, Erik Paulsen proudly issued a press release that his Ways and Means Committee had approved for a full House vote his legislation H.R. 4, the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act.

While Mr. Paulsen did not tell the taxpayers what his proposal would cost, the CBO does :

H.R. 4 would repeal certain scheduled expansions in information reporting requirements.
The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that enacting the legislation would increase federal budget deficits by $21.9 billion over the 2011-2021 period, reflecting reductions in revenues.
The legislation would repeal an expansion currently scheduled to take effect in 2012 of information that businesses must report to the recipients of certain payments, as well as to the Internal Revenue Service, on form 1099. Beginning in 2012, certain payments not previously subject to 1099 reporting requirements, including those made to corporations and those made for property, will become subject to the reporting requirements. The repeal of this expansion would reduce revenues by an estimated $21.9 billion over the 2011-2021 period, as shown in the following table. Because enacting H.R.4 would affect revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures apply. (All effects are on-budget.)

FYI : The CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation also re-reviewed the Republican healthcare legislation which Speaker John Boehner (R-OH-08) had dismissed in January : “I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit.”

Here’s the key comment from their new analysis :

By comparison, last March CBO and JCT estimated that enacting PPACA and the health-related provisions of the Reconciliation Act would reduce federal
deficits by $124 billion over the 2010-2019 period. The difference between the two estimates for the 10-year projection periods is primarily attributable to the different time periods they cover. Over the eight years
that are common to the two analyses (2012-2019), enactment of PPACA and the health-related provisions of the Reconciliation Act was projected last March to reduce federal deficits by $132 billion, whereas the repeal of that legislation is projected now to increase deficits by $119 billion.

Mr. Paulsen and Mr. Boehner are promoting legislation that will INCREASE the deficit yet the premise that the new Republican Majority in Congress promoted was ‘CUT GO,’ … so tell us what government program will be terminated or spending reduced to negate this loss of revenues … The Republican Majority had promised to that would be included in the very same bill.

Mr. Paulsen, you need to tell us now what you will cut.