Earlier this week, CBO’s Acting Assistant Director for National Security, Matthew Goldberg, spoke to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform on the topic of discretionary defense spending.
CBO Blog
CBO’s greatest asset is its staff, committed not only to its important work supporting the Congress, but also to significant causes outside the office.
The federal budget deficit was $941 billion during the first eight months of fiscal year 2010, CBO estimates in its latest monthly budget review, $51 billion less than the shortfall recorded over the same period last year. Both revenues and outlays were lower than the corresponding amounts during the same period last year, by 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Lenny Skutnik is a household name belonging to an unassuming Congressional Budget Office employee who insists he “wasn’t a hero” when one winter day in 1982 he jumped from the shore into the icy Potomac River to save a drowning woman after an Air Florida flight crashed on takeoff. “I was just someone who helped another human being,” Lenny said later. While his rescue of Priscilla Tirado that day was extraordinary, Lenny has been helping the employees at CBO for more than 30 years.
A short time ago, I received an interesting letter from a young man in Michigan asking about federal budget deficits. I thought that perhaps other students would be interested in the kinds of questions he asked and how I answered him, so I’ve decided to share my letter to him with all of you. Here’s what I wrote:
1. What are the primary causes of the current federal budget deficits?
On Wednesday I spoke at a conference on the health care system hosted by the Institute of Medicine. My presentation dealt with health care costs and the federal budget. The central challenge is straightforward and stark: The rising costs of health care will put tremendous pressure on the federal budget during the next few decades and beyond.
The United States Navy and Marine Corps operate a fleet of more than 1,100 tactical fighter aircraft that provide air-to-air and air-to-ground combat capabilities. Those aircraft include Hornets (F/A-18A, B, C, and D), Super Hornets (F/A-18E and F), and Harriers (AV-8B); within the next few years, a new and more advanced aircraft—the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)—will start being added to the fleet.
Early last week, I wrote that CBO is providing basic budget and economic analysis for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA (most grant and loan recipients, contractors, and subcontractors) are required to report the number of jobs they created or retained with ARRA funding after the end of each calendar quarter. The law also requires CBO to comment on those reported numbers. Today CBO released a report to satisfy that requirement.
The Navy is required by law to submit a report to the Congress each year that projects the service’s shipbuilding requirements, procurement plans, inventories, and costs over the coming 30 years. Since 2006, CBO has been performing an independent analysis of the Navy’s latest shipbuilding plan at the request of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces of the House Armed Services Committee.