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Budget Cuts Series: Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
In Smart Dissent's Budget Cuts Series, we are examining the White House proposed budget cuts to learn what's hidden beneath the surface and later update based on Congressional budget proposals and actions. This post focuses on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) - the group that recently educated our citizens and elected representatives about how incredibly harmful the proposed Republican (non) healthcare legislation would be. The CBO is the target of House Republicans -- we must Be Smart about it and Actively Dissent.
Why does the CBO matter? What do they do?
Since 1975, CBO has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. Each year, the agency’s economists and budget analysts produce dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates for proposed legislation.
CBO is strictly nonpartisan; conducts objective, impartial analysis; and hires its employees solely on the basis of professional competence without regard to political affiliation. CBO does not make policy recommendations, and each report and cost estimate summarizes the methodology underlying the analysis.
CBO’s work follows processes specified in the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (which established the agency) or developed by the agency in concert with the House and Senate Budget Committees and the Congressional leadership.
The CBO has become an enemy of some Republicans due to their mission to provide FACTS. It's integrity has been called into question when the data does not support what these Republicans wish to do for their corporate interested at the expense of citizens and taxpayers.
Conservative hard-liners in the House are hoping to gut the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper whose analysis has recently bedeviled Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, by amending a massive spending bill set to be debated later this week. An amendment filed Monday by Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) would eliminate the agency’s Budget Analysis Division, cutting 89 jobs and $15 million of the CBO’s proposed $48.5 million budget.
Critics have attacked the CBO’s analysis and pointed to its projections on the Affordable Care Act as evidence that the office, now led by a Republican-selected director, cannot be trusted to accurately analyze complex legislation. The criticism compelled the eight former directors of the CBO, which was created in 1974, to sign a letter Friday objecting to “recent attacks on the integrity and professionalism of the agency and on the agency’s role in the legislative process.”
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, slammed the amendments. “The CBO is a long-respected institution whose rigorous analysis and reports are critical resources for Congress as we consider legislation that affects the lives of the American people,” he said.
Additional Reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/opinion/trump-cbo-republicans-hate.html