Budget office certifies that deal would cut deficits by $2.1 trillion

The Congressional Budget Office on Monday reported that the debt-ceiling deal reached by congressional leaders and the White House would cut federal deficits by $2.1 trillion over 10 years.

The CBO found that the total reduction in deficits under the plan would be roughly equal or greater than the $2.1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. 

The bill meets Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) pledge to match any debt-ceiling hike with spending cuts. 

The deal calls for a $900 billion increase in the debt ceiling followed by another $1.2 trillion increase if a joint committee to be created by congressional leaders fails to find more savings.

{mosads}The compromise obtains $917 billion in savings from discretionary spending caps, the same as the debt-ceiling bill from Boehner that the House passed last week. It finds the extras deficit savings from automatic across-the-board cuts that take effect if the committee fails to find $1.5 trillion or more in savings. 

The CBO is using an adjusted March baseline that does not allow dealmakers to include savings already realized by the April spending-cuts deal for fiscal 2011. It also does not count savings from Iraq and Afghanistan, something Democrats wanted to include but which the GOP called a gimmick.

House leaders are meeting at 12:30 p.m. to try to convince rank-and-file to vote for the deal. With Tea Party groups opposed, a sizable defection of conservatives is expected. They prefer the “cut, cap and balance” bill that would have cut at least $6 trillion.

Updated at 1:238 p.m.