The press is filled with the estimated savings from the health care reform reconciliation legislation. Proponents are touting the deficit reduction aspects of the bill. In short, you are hearing all the good stuff and not the reality.
The CBO by all accounts is a very reputable group of professionals who are constrained by the reality of what they are given to evaluate. For example, they must assume that every aspect of the legislation will be enacted as written even if a provision is eight years into the future and left untouched by future Congresses. That possibility is close to zero as history shows us repeatedly.
There is a great deal of uncertainty in these estimates.

