Two items of importance: Last friday the Congressional Budget Office released an updated analysis of the President’s budget for fiscal year 2006, which includes an update of their baseline projections for the 2006-2015 period. In preparing this updated projection, they revised their estimates for Medicare spending. See this document, "Updated Estimates of Spending for Medicare," for details. The CBO's new spending estimate is an increase of almost 50 percent since their last estimate. Also of importance is today's news that the Senate will set a budget reconciliation tax figure of roughly $71 billion, which is down from the approximately $100 billion Bush proposed spending on tax cuts in his FY 06 budget proposal. See this OMB Watcher article for more information. Senate Republican budget writers are now saying this amount should be sufficient to cover the cost of extending expiring tax provisions through the five-year budget window; however this cost does not address the potential high costs of alternative minimum tax reform. These tax cuts, because they will be completed in reconciliation, will be given as instructions to the Finance Committee to undertake. Reconciliation bills are considered under expedited procedures in the Senate and cannot be filibustered. Finally, yesterday Senator Hegel (R-NE) introduced a Social Security bill that is based on the creation of private investment accounts. Like the White House, Hegel supports diverting four percentage points of payroll taxes to fund these accounts. Hegel's plan would allow workers under the age of 45 to divert part of their payroll tax contributions for these accounts. Read a transcript of Hegel's speech on his Social Security proposal here. Senate Minority Whip Durbin (D-IL) reiterated the Democratic leadership's stance on Social Security reform by calling any plan with privatization accounts "non-starters" on Meet the Press the other day. Click here for more information.