[Romney] also wants to save money by rolling back President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
He made the point in the USA Today op-ed, suggesting he would "repeal ObamaCare, which would save $95 billion in 2016."
We were surprised by his suggestion. As we remembered the health care negotiations, Democrats took pains to make sure the 2010 health care law was projected to reduce the deficit, and they bragged repeatedly about their numbers.
We contacted the Romney campaign, which referred us to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the agency that independently calculates the cost of laws proposed by both parties.
So according to the CBO analysis, a full repeal of the bill would reduce the deficit by $16 billion in 2016, much less than the number Romney cited.
And then there’s the broader picture: When the CBO looked at the first 10 years of repeal, from 2012 to 2021, it found that repeal added $210 billion to the deficit. So the deficit would actually be lower if the law is not repealed.
