President Obama has called for $1.6 trillion in new revenue over ten years as part of a deficit-reduction package. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that this is more than the Bowles-Simpson commission recommended. Actually, it’s a lot less.



As our report “What Was Actually in Bowles-Simpson?” explains, Bowles-Simpson called for $2.6 trillion in new revenue over the 2013-2022 period. A new Center for American Progress report has a similar estimate: $2.7 trillion.



Bowles-Simpson also called for nearly $2.9 trillion of program cuts, about half of which have already been enacted. This means that most of the plan’s not-yet-achieved savings are on the revenue side. Excluding the enacted savings, Bowles-Simpson would achieve an additional $4.6 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years (including $0.6 trillion in lower interest costs), which would consist of $1 in program cuts for every $2 in revenue increases.