They go with what’s in front of them. They can use a hopeful 4 percent growth until it’s factual.
A government watchdog group, the Foundation for Government Accountability, has issued reports and testified before Congress on CBO’s forecasting record. The group has said that CBO’s track record is “questionable, at best.” They say that CBO’s “cost estimates have been stunningly inaccurate in many cases,” and that the agency has “routinely mis-estimated revenue and outlays.”