This is what they always say: "This time will be different." -- Automatic Cuts Could Help Push Past a Health Hurdle

From the New York Times:

President Obama’s new call to impose automatic spending cuts if the health care overhaul adds “one dime” to federal budget deficits could help push his top domestic priority over one of the biggest hurdles in its path through Congress.

But once in law, such automatic triggers have not proved effective as a way to reduce federal spending. In the past, Congress and the White House have simply overridden or ignored them. This time, advocates insist, would be different.

In his prime-time address on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama restated his only line in the sand for a health care bill: He will not sign any measure that “adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.” But for the first time he asked Congress to mandate that future Congresses and presidents “come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.”