Explaining Analytical Methods
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How CBO and Joint Committee Staff Prepare Dynamic Analyses
CBO and staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation respond to questions about how they develop estimates of the budgetary and economic effects of legislation.
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Business Tax Credits for Wind and Solar Power
CBO provides an overview of federal tax credits that support investment in wind and solar electric power. The agency also explains how it assesses the credits’ budgetary and economic effects and how its baseline reflects JCT’s revenue estimates.
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The Long-Term Budget Outlook: 2025 to 2055
Extending the 10-year budget projections it published on January 17, 2025, CBO projects that federal debt held by the public, boosted by sustained deficits, will grow far beyond any previously recorded level over the next 30 years.
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CBO Explains Common Sources of Uncertainty in Cost Estimates for Legislation
CBO’s cost estimates, which represent the agency’s best assessment of a bill’s budgetary effects, can be subject to uncertainty arising from various sources. CBO describes how it addresses six common sources of uncertainty.
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Unemployment Insurance: Budgetary History and Projections
CBO examines trends in revenues and outlays associated with unemployment insurance and provides information about how CBO treats that program in its baseline projections and cost estimates.
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How Increased Use of Gene Therapy Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease Could Affect the Federal Budget
Gene therapies replace or modify disease-causing genes in human cells. In this report, CBO discusses how it would estimate the budgetary effects of policies that sought to increase the use of gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease.
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CBO Explains How It Incorporates Administrative and Judicial Actions When Updating Its Baseline Projections and Preparing Cost Estimates
This primer summarizes the practices that CBO follows when incorporating the effects of recent administrative and judicial actions in its baseline projections and cost estimates.
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Extending Medicaid and CHIP Coverage for Children: Long-Run Budgetary Effects of the President’s 2025 Budget Proposal
CBO estimates how expanding certain children’s eligibility for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program over the next 10 years would affect the U.S. economy and the federal budget through the end of the century.
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An Evaluation of CBO’s Projections of Deficits and Debt From 1984 to 2023
CBO assesses the quality of the baseline projections of deficits and debt that it has made each spring from 1984 to 2023.
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How CBO Uses Discount Rates to Estimate the Present Value of Future Costs or Savings
CBO describes how it selects and uses discount rates to produce estimates for a wide range of federal activities that can have budgetary effects far into the future.