Congressional Budget Office

Alaska governor launches bid to measure oil in Arctic refuge

2013-05-20 14:46:00

For decades, war has been waged over the holy grail of America's Arctic frontier, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The wide coastal plain on the edge of the Beaufort Sea contains stunning populations of caribou, grizzly, musk oxen and other wildlife...

Obama budget would cut deficits, report says

2013-05-17 14:20:00

WASHINGTON -- President Obama’s proposed mix of tax hikes and spending cuts would reduce future budget deficits more quickly than under current laws, according to a report issued Friday that could rekindle the dormant budget wars in Washington....

Federal deficit shrinks at surprising rate

2013-05-14 18:56:00

WASHINGTON — The federal deficit is shrinking more quickly than expected, and the government's long-term debt has largely stabilized for the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that could strengthen the Obama...

Boomers need immigrants

2013-05-12 00:00:00

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up comprehensive immigration reform late last week. And, as expected, opponents are already rushing to derail it, arguing that any bill that legalizes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants in the United States...

Obamacare and the plight of part-time employees

2013-05-02 13:15:00

A flurry of news reports, including one Thursday by my colleague Chad Terhune, has documented an unintended consequence of Obamacare: the decision by some employers to keep fewer full-time workers on the payroll or reduce the hours of near full-time...

Social Security boosted by immigration bill, chief actuary says

2013-05-08 15:51:00

WASHINGTON -- The bipartisan Senate immigration proposal would provide a boost to the Social Security fund, its chief actuary said Wednesday, as more immigrants come out of the underground economy and begin paying taxes. The assessment of the bill’...

GOP fights itself over immigration reform

2013-05-08 06:00:00

Over the last few years the Republican Party has campaigned hard against comprehensive immigration reform and in favor of tougher internal enforcement and beefed-up security along the U.S. border with Mexico. Now the GOP leadership is hoping to persuade...

Heritage Foundation study says immigration reform would be costly

2013-05-06 17:12:00

WASHINGTON -- A conservative think tank said Monday that immigration reform would be costly to taxpayers -- the latest in a growing, but contradictory, body of research on the costs and benefits of providing a path to citizenship for those living in...

Chained thinking on the federal deficit

2013-04-23 19:15:00

Washington's tug of war over the federal budget has many wonders, but the biggest one of all must be the lengths to which politicians and pundits will go to deprive Granny and Grandpa of $30 a month. That's the amount by which benefits for the average...

Why 'chained CPI' works for Social Security [Blowback]

2013-04-02 11:12:00

In his March 22 blog post criticizing proposals to switch from the consumer price index to "chained CPI" to determine cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries and other items in the federal budget, Michael Hiltzik claimed that there...

Federal budget cuts to squeeze some states harder than others

2013-04-01 00:00:00

With the Pentagon set to whack its share of $85 billion in automatic federal budget cuts last month, it didn't take long for Velma Searcy to feel the pain. The owner of a Palmdale maker of military aircraft parts saw two contracts quickly evaporate as...

An honor for Alice Rivlin roils Social Security faithful

2013-03-27 06:30:00

Robert M. Ball is one of the most revered figures in Social Security history, a man whose devotion to safeguarding the program from ideological attacks and political cant over six decades made him the program's�"undisputed spiritual leader." Alice M....

Congress is currently embattled in negotiations on the "fiscal cliff," which refers to the effect of a number of laws that, if unchanged, could result in tax increases, spending cuts and a reduction in the budget deficit beginning in 2013.

2012-12-04 04:39:52