PAYGO Tracker
When Democrats assumed the House Majority at the start of the 110th Congress, they claimed their vaunted pay-as-you-go [PAYGO] rule would lead to a new era of fiscal discipline. Their actual record, however, tells a different story. On most of the Majority's priority legislation, PAYGO has been waived, gamed, ignored, or employed to justify billions of dollars in new spending and tax and fee increases.
In whatever form, however, pay-as-you-go has failed to prevent an explosion of deficit spending over the past 3½ years; and when enforced, the rule has mainly driven higher taxes to chase higher spending. Here are some of the results:
- Since the start of the Democratic congressional Majorities in January 2007, the deficit has widened nearly 10-fold, from $160 billion to $1.5 trillion this year, and deficits will total $9.8 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
- So far during the 111th Congress, the President and Democratic Majority have enacted more than $1.6 trillion in 10-year deficit increases under pay-go, using various methods to hide the red ink and claim they were “paying for” their spending binge.
- They also have increased spending by $1.4 trillion over 10 years, and used pay-as-you-go to raise taxes by $447.3 billion.
- In addition, the House has passed numerous other deficit- or tax-increasing bills that are awaiting further action.
READ ENTIRE PAYGO DOCUMENT
Listed below are the instances in which the Majority waived or ignored its PAYGO rule during the 111th Congress.
Table 1: Spending, Tax, and Deficit Effects of Enacted Pay-Go Legislation, 111th Congress
(dollars in billions)
Legislation |
Net Increase in
Direct Spending
|
Tax/Fee Change
[a] |
Scored Pay-Go
Deficit Impact |
Adjusted Deficit
[b]
|
| State Children’s Health Insurance Program [SCHIP] (enacted 4 Feb. 2009) |
73.8 |
74.8 |
-1.0[c] |
40.2 |
| American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (‘stimulus’) (enacted 17 Feb. 2009)[d] |
318 |
-236 |
0 |
862[e] |
| Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (enacted 22 June 2009) |
0.42 |
1.47 |
-1.04 |
-1.04 |
| Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act (enacted 6 November 2009) |
6.6 |
6.7 |
[f] |
[f] |
| Department of Defense Appropriations Act, Fiscal Year 2010 (enacted 19 Dec. 2009) |
12.2 |
-6.4 |
0 |
18.6 |
Temporary Extension Act of 2010
(enacted 3 March 2010) |
8.2 |
-2.2 |
0[g] |
10.3 |
| Health Care/Ed. Reconciliation, Patient Protection Act (enacted 23 March 2010) |
938 |
569.2 |
-138.0 |
662.0[h] |
| The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (H.R. 2847) (enacted 18 March 2010)[I] |
29.2 |
29.9 |
-0.657 |
-0.657 |
| The Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (H.R. 4851)(enacted 15 April 2010) |
15.4 |
-2.8 |
0 |
18.2 |
| The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act (enacted 21 July 2010) |
10.2 |
13.5 |
-3.2 |
22.3 |
| The Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 4213) (enacted 22 July 2010) |
33 |
-0.9 |
0 |
33.9 |
| TOTALS |
1,445.0 |
447.3 |
-143.9 |
1,665.8 |
[a] Tax or fee increases, reflected as positive numbers, should be subtracted from spending totals because they have the effect of reducing deficits; tax or fee reductions (negative numbers) should be added to spending, because they increase deficits.
[b] The “adjusted” figure reflects the deficit impact as measured against the Congressional Budget Office [CBO] current-law baseline, and removes exceptions for emergency designations, gimmicks, and other pay-go maneuvers. Positive numbers indicate deficit increase; negative numbers indicate deficit reduction.
[c] Funding cliff after 5 years. The CBO estimates the spending increase in the legislation as written – which terminates provisions after 5 years – at $73.8 billion. If provisions are continued after 5 years, the spending increase is $115 billion, CBO estimates.
[d] Declared an “emergency,” hence no pay-go deficit impact.
[e] Includes $308.3 billion in discretionary spending increases.
[f] Less than $50 million.
[g] Uses provision of S. Con. Res. 13 allowing the House Budget Committee Chairman to ignore physician payment changes scheduled under current law in calculating the deficit impact of this legislation.
[h] Includes the effect of the “doc fix,” also shown in House-passed legislation in Table 2.
[I] Figures based on the best available estimates by CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Figures may not add due to rounding.
Table 2: Spending, Tax, and Deficit Effects of Additional House-Passed Pay-Go Legislation, 111th Congress
(dollars in billions)
Legislation |
Net Increase in
Direct Spending |
Tax/Fee Change
[a] |
Scored Pay-Go
Deficit Impact |
Adjusted Deficit
[b]
|
| The American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454) (passed 26 July 2009) |
821 |
846 |
-24 |
-24 |
Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act
(passed 11 November 2009) |
209.6 |
0 |
0 |
209.6 |
| Permanent Estate Tax Relief (H.R. 4154) (passed 3 December 2009) |
0 |
-233 |
0 |
233[c] |
| The Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act of 2010 (H.R. 5114) (passed 15 July 2010) |
2.8 |
2.8 |
0 |
0 |
| TOTALS |
1,033.4 |
615.8 |
-24 |
418.6 |
[a] Tax or fee increases, reflected as positive numbers, should be subtracted from spending totals because they have the effect of reducing deficits; tax or fee reductions (negative numbers) should be added to spending, because they increase deficits.
[b] The “adjusted” figure reflects the deficit impact as measured against the Congressional Budget Office current-law baseline, and removes exceptions for emergency designations, gimmicks, and other pay-go maneuvers. Positive numbers indicate deficit increase; negative numbers indicate deficit reduction.
[c] Deficit relative to the Congressional Budget Office current-law baseline.
Figures may not add due to rounding.
Budget Committee Documents on PAYGO:
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