CBO today released the January monthly budget review. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2008 (the first quarter of the 2008 fiscal year covers October through December 2007), the budget deficit was $107 billion -- about $27 billion more than in the same quarter last year. On January 23, CBO will release its Budget and Economic Outlook, which will provide updated estimates of the budget for fiscal year 2008 along with the next ten fiscal years.
CBO Blog
After a brief break from blogging during the holidays, I will begin regular entries again today...
This morning, our first Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow joins CBO. The RWJ fellowship program is sponsored by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, and is extremely well-regarded in both health and policy circles. As part of our ongoing effort to augment our already exceptional internal resources on health care policy, we're excited about hosting an RWJ fellow.
CBO just released an interim report on the VA health system. VA's health care program has attracted lots of attention, and as part of CBO's ongoing effort to expand our health-related activities, we are examining the evidence on the VA system -- along with what lessons, if any, it may hold for other parts of the health care system.
As you can imagine, CBO prides itself on its analytical capabilities -- and its analysis is (justifiably, in my opinion!) widely respected. From time to time, though, criticisms of our analysis are raised. I won't respond to most of these criticisms, but in some cases, it may be worth examining the issues raised in a critique of CBO's analysis -- and that's what this post does.
As I mentioned in a previous post, corporate tax receipts have recently appeared relatively weak: in each of the past five months, payments of corporate receipts have experienced notable year-over-year declines. December may turn out to reverse that trend, however, and December is a relatively important month for corporate receipts.
CBO just released a report on comparative effectiveness research. Such research holds the potential to reduce health care costs over the long term -- possibly by substantial amounts if it is done rigorously and if its results are ultimately tied to changes in financial incentives for providers and consumers.
CBO has posted a score of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007....
CBO released today an updated analysis of the implications of the nation's long-term defense plans. National defense decisions made todayincluding those regarding weapon systems, military compensation, and numbers of personnelcan have long-lasting effects on the composition of U.S. armed forces and the budgetary resources needed to support them. What we're trying to do in this report is evaluate the costs involved.
This morning, CBO released its new long-term budget outlook and I am testifying before the House Budget Committee on our report. The report presents 75-year projections of federal spending and revenues under two alternative sets of assumptions, each of which represents a possible interpretation of current fiscal policy.
Those of you who have recently been following CBO's work on health care will see many familiar themes in this oped in today's Wall Street Journal...