The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) gives the Department of the Treasury authority to purchase or insure up to $700 billion of outstanding assets at any one time. Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which provided that authority, the federal budget is supposed to reflect an estimate of the ultimate net cost of the transactions for the TARP as opposed to recording the gross cash disbursements under the program (and later recording cash receipts for any earnings or purchase redemptions).
April 2009
Over the past several years, spurred by both rising gasoline prices and long-standing subsidies for producing ethanol, the use of ethanol as a motor fuel in the United States has grown at an annual average rate of nearly 25 percent.U.S. consumption of ethanol last year exceeded 9 billion gallons--a record high. CBO released a paper today that discusses the relationship between ethanol, greenhouse-gas emissions, food prices, and federal spending on nutrition programs.
Today CBO released the latest Monthly Budget Review, reflecting an analysis of budget data through the end of March 2009. CBO estimates that the Treasury Department will report a deficit of about $953 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2009, $640 billion more than the deficit recorded through March 2008.
Today CBO released an update to its estimates of effective federal tax rates, which now incorporate data for the 2006 calendar year. Those data, the most current available,reflect tax returns filed in 2007 and became available for analysis in 2008. The effective tax rates in 2006 differed only slightly from those in 2005. CBOs analysis indicates that: