The current law baseline assumes the expiration of all the Bush tax cuts, it assumes the spending sequester will take effect, it assumes huge Medicare cuts that Congress will never permit, and much more. If we follow current law, we don’t really have a deficit problem. No one believes we will follow current law. If they did, they wouldn’t worry about deficits.
But Blahous’s baseline takes that much further: If we follow his assumptions, soon enough, we don’t even have deficits. By 2050, we’re a few percentage points away from surpluses. No one believes that, either. But a bunch of folks are willing to pretend they believe that for the purposes of making the Affordable Care Act look fiscally irresponsible.
via The bizarre baseline that Obamacare’s opponents are using–in one graph – The Washington Post.