CBO Blog

Various media reports are incorrectly attributing to CBO a figure (that the average driver would save about $30 this summer) associated with a gas tax holiday. CBO has not published such a figure and the citations to CBO are inaccurate.

This misattribution raises a larger point. CBO is a nonpartisan organization, and we are not in the business of scoring or evaluating campaign proposals. In some cases, CBO may have previously estimated or evaluated a proposal similar to one subsequently proposed in a campaignand those estimates generally are available on our website.

CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation have been working closely together to analyze a modified version of S. 334, the Healthy Americans Act. This morning Edward Kleinbard (the staff director of the JCT) and I sent the letter below to Senators Wyden and Bennett about the modified proposal.

CBO issued a letter today reviewing a new investment policy recently adopted by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). As part of its analysis, CBO reviewed the assumptions underlying PBGCs decision and assessed the revised policy's potential for affecting the corporation's ability to meet its obligation to retirees and for increasing costs to taxpayers.

I am testifying this morning before the Senate Finance Committee on the implications of a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions. The testimony is posted here.

CBO has released an updated report on the cyclically adjusted and standardized budget. The new report is a companion to the baseline budget projections published in CBOs March 2008 Analysis of the Presidents Budget.

Despite some suggestions in the press to the contrary, CBO has not yet issued a cost estimate for the FHA-related housing proposal that is under discussion in the House of Representatives. A bill sponsored by Mr. Frank was introduced late today and CBO is reviewing it. CBO will issue a cost estimate for the legislation soon after it is approved by the House Committee on Financial Services, and I will post a link to the cost estimate when we issue it.

Today, CBO released a new issue brief on increasing disparities in life expectancy. Here I provide a brief summary of the brief (yes, I recognize the irony in that phrasing):

This morning, CBO released a new study on policy options for the housing and mortgage markets. The paper discusses the potential for federal intervention to ameliorate the situation, by encouraging and removing impediments to private mortgage restructuring or by providing federal financial support.

CBO has issued a cost estimate of S. 2191, the America's Climate Security Act of 2007, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in December 2007. We've also issued a cost estimate on a slightly amended version of the legislation that was transmitted to us on April 9, 2008.

I am testifying this afternoon before the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), crowd-out (that is, the substitution of public insurance coverage for private insurance coverage), and the August 17th directive from the Administration to state health officials (which has generated significant controversy). The testimony is posted here. The testimony makes the following main points: