Analyses of the Senate's Immigration Legislation

Working with the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, CBO has prepared two analyses related to S. 744, the immigration bill recently approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

• A cost estimate providing projections of the bill’s effects on federal spending, revenues, and the deficit.
• A report on the economic impact of S. 744, analyzing the bill's overall effects on economic output, employment, wages, productivity, and interest rates.

Options to Change Interest Rates and Other Terms on Student Loans

The interest rate for subsidized student loans—which account for about one-quarter of all new student loans—is currently scheduled to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1, 2013.

CBO has assessed the budgetary effects of a range of options for changing the terms on new subsidized loans and of options for changing the overall approach to setting interest rates on all new loans.

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Dual-Eligible Beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid: Characteristics, Health Care Spending, and Evolving Policies

People eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid benefits—“dual-eligible beneficiaries”—are a varied group, but many have extensive health care needs, stemming from multiple illnesses and disabilities. They account for a disproportionate share of spending on Medicare and Medicaid.

Providing care through separate programs with different payment and approval procedures increases the likelihood that dual beneficiaries receive fragmented care, potentially worsening outcomes.

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The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System

Tax expenditures—which provide financial assistance to specific activities, entities, or groups—are generally distributed unevenly across the income scale. Among the 10 largest that CBO examined are exclusions for employer-sponsored health insurance, deductions for home mortgage interest, and credits for families with children.

CBO finds that such expenditures are a larger percentage of after-tax income for households in the highest- and lowest-income groups than for middle-income households.

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Effects of a Carbon Tax on the Economy and the Environment

The economic impact of taxing CO₂ emissions or fossil fuels would depend on what lawmakers did with the revenues from the tax. Using the revenues to reduce deficits or cut other tax rates would decrease the tax’s total cost to the economy; using the revenues to reduce adverse effects on selected groups would not.

The tax would help reduce U.S. emissions but would have only a modest effect on the Earth’s climate without a worldwide effort.

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