WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told lawmakers on Thursday legislation to expand health care coverage would increase federal healthcare costs "to a significant degree" and revenue will need to be found to keep from increasing the deficit.
Asked by the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee about his remarks to a Senate committee earlier Thursday that the legislation would not hold down healthcare costs, he said, "The point I made earlier this morning is that it raises future federal outlays more than it reduces future federal outlays."
Elmendorf told the panel, "The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on health care to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don't see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree."
"Today's CBO testimony should be a wake-up call," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. "Instead of rushing through one expensive proposal after another, we should take the time we need to get things right -- especially at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing jobs every month."
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