The "small amount" mentioned is, according to the Congressional Budget Office, $143 billion over the next 10 years:
The new Republican [House] rules skirting "pay-go" requirements have the support of an influential Tea Party group, which suggested the strategy in a memo to Republican leaders earlier this month. In the memo, FreedomWorks said the deficit reduction provided by the [health care] reform law is "a small amount" and that the savings would "vanish" in the next CBO estimate.
To note the GOP's hypocrisy on deficit spending would of course be superfluous. It's who they are, it's what they do -- and since their scandalous predations haven't yet unforgivably shocked the American electorate, perhaps they never will.
Democrats may wish to note to the electorate, however, that Republicans' allegiance not to taxpayers or the nation's general welfare but to a ruthless, disembodied, invincible Ideology now predetermines their legislative course. Continued tax cuts to the wealthiest among us may blow a bigger hole in the deficit, dear Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer, but their Ideology demands the sacrifice. And though the health care reform law may help to close that hole, their Ideology forbids it. Ideology's price tag is immaterial.
The average American voter tolerates political hypocrisy, because to this voter politics and hypocrisy are indistinguishable. A fair tolerance. But the average American voter detests ideology, when asked to think about it, because ideology hems in practical solutions. And Americans are a famously, immensely pragmatic people who dislike being hemmed in.
If Democrats can't immediately reaffirm that case, then they may want to rethink their core communications strategy, beginning with a rollout of voter-education television ads, for roughly 365 days next year. No kidding.