Posted on 07/08/2010 3:59:29 AM PDT by tobyhill
Congressional budget experts say a climate and energy bill now stalled in the Senate would reduce the federal deficit by about $19 billion over the next decade.
The report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office was the second positive analysis of the bill by a government agency in a month, but is likely to carry more weight than a similar report issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. The CBO is the entity responsible for providing Congress with nonpartisan analyses of economic and budget issues, and lawmakers rely on it for guidance.
The CBO report was immediately hailed by the bill's sponsors, who are struggling to move the climate measure through a divided Congress. Lawmakers have quietly begun considering a more modest approach that would target the electricity sector, in case the more sweeping measure fails.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
You are right but it is actually worse than that. I have sympathy (but not too much) for the CBO. They are owned and operated by our National Legislature. When they are given a request, it is not unusual for the requesting Representative or Senator to forbid consideration of anything not specifically asked for.
In this case, it MIGHT HAVE BEEN something like this, "given a steady business state, what would be the impact of this bill upon the deficit?" EVEN IF IT IS OBVIOUS that it could drive businesses into bankruptcy or offshore, the CBO is not permitted to mention this unless another congress-critter asks for it in a separate report.
As I understand it the CBO can only do thier analysis based upon the numbers that Congress give to them and Congress only uses the numbers that look good for them. It is just like a computer if you put garbage in then you get garbage out. The CBO I believe tries but it is limited by Congress.
Cutting welfare by $38 Billion would save TWICE that amount.
I think, have not researched< that the CBO as setup by congress does not have achoice on the numbers and this hampers its ability to say what the real cost is.
You’re right but if they don’t want to be accused of being in the tank for the Rats then they’ll figure out a way to write reports with true numbers.
Of course it will cut the deficit in the short term, it’s a TAX! Like any tax, it brings in revenue, until it drains the economy and costs even more jobs and then it increases the deficit.
Just say no to Obamnomics.
Of course it scores as deficit reduction. The CBO can’t take into account the possibility that the legislation will damage businesses and thereby cut tax revenues. They can only score the direct effects of the legislation.
And the direct effect is to raise BILLIONS in new taxes, mostly through the sale of carbon credits. So it’s not that enacting climate legislation will reduce our deficits, any more than “fixing” health care would reduce the deficits.
In both cases, the “deficit reduction” was due to raising taxes in the bills.
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