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01 Feb 2012 10:07

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Politics: CBO: What if Congress did nothing this year? Well, we’d cut the deficit

  • positive According to a hypothetical posed by the Congressional Budget Office, if Congress’ deadlock worsened and nothing got done this year, the deficit would shrink heavily as the Bush tax cuts would expire and other spending initiatives would end. Huh.
  • negative However … this comes with a lot of pain. As federal workers lose their jobs, the unemployment rate would rise above 9 percent again, and the economy’s recent gains would get pushed back, according to CBO estimates. Would the cost be worth the benefit, guys? source
  • » The trade-off: “On the one hand, if policymakers leave current laws unchanged, the federal debt will probably recede slowly,” said CBO director Douglas W. Elmendorf. “On the other hand, changing current laws to let current policies continue … would boost the economy and allow people to pay less in taxes and benefit more from government programs in the next few years — but put the nation on an unsustainable fiscal course.” That’s a tough one, kids.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Aug 2011 10:38

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U.S.: Budget deficit: Smaller than previous years, still pretty freaking huge

  • $1.28 trillion deficit in ’11, down slightly from ’09 & ’10 source
  • » A report full of mediocre news: The Congressional Budget Office’s report on the deficit notes that while the deficits will be smaller over the next decade — by $3.3 trillion over ten years — as a result of the arm-twisting budget deal passed earlier this month, another $3.5 trillion in deficits will be added on top of everything else. Oh, and lest you think that $1.28 trillion is a small amount, it’s only small compared to the prior two years, which were basically the two largest yearly deficits on record. So this total redefines “smaller.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Mar 2011 13:24

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U.S.: CBO report: Obama’s deficit balloons, and tax cuts to blame

  • $9.5 trillion the size of the deficits that will be required under current policies through 2021, the CBO says
  • $2.7 trillion the increase over the previous expected budget numbers – a huge leap, to say the least source
  • » Why is this? The CBO’s report says that in regards to what’s behind all this, “Of the various initiatives that the President is proposing, tax provisions would have by far the largest budgetary impact.” In layman’s terms, tax cuts — especially those for the middle class — are the largest factor affecting deficits. While he’s pushing for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations, they won’t offset the effect of the tax cuts. You know what’s funny though? Even though the CBO’s report specifically says this, the Washington Times reported this story as if spending was the culprit.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 13:35

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U.S.: The high cost of unfunded tax cuts

  • $1.07 trillion could have been our deficit in 2011 source
  • » Not to belabor the point: The extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, which the President hashed out with Republicans, was a compromise granted to a political party that claims to be concerned about the deficit. You might therefore think the deal wouldn’t staggeringly increase the deficit, but you’d think wrong. This news will invariably be spun into another story about reckless liberal spending, but remember: this was the war trophy the Republican Party got out of the President, unfunded expenditure be damned.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 1 Comment • Permalink

26 Jan 2011 11:06

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U.S.: Party-poopin’ CBO: Our deficit will jump significantly in 2011

  • $1.48
    trillion     the expected deficit the CBO says we’ll have at the end of the 2011 fiscal year
  • 14%
    increase     the expected jump in the $1.3 trillion deficit from 2010’s fiscal year (ended Sept. 30) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

06 Jan 2011 22:28

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Politics: What would be the effect of repealing health care reform?

  • $250billionincrease in deficit over the next ten years if the GOP succeeds in repealing health care reform
  • 32million more people would be uninsured, too. Three cheers for repeal! source
  • » This isn’t according to Congressional Democrats. It’s not according to the White House. No, these numbers come from the third party, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Republicans have cited CBO numbers in the past, too, so this isn’t an example of a biased report coming from a politically-motivated source. It’s just the facts, ma’am.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 23:01

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Politics, U.S.: TARP: Not as expensive as we’d thought it was

  • $109
    billlion     estimated losses of the TARP program, as of last March, according to CBO
  • $66 billion that same estimate, revised five months later by CBO
  • $25 billion the most recent estimate of TARP’s losses, as of today  source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Aug 2010 11:09

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U.S.: The 2010 federal budget’s deficit projection: It’s down … slightly

  • $1.342
    trillion     the budget deficit projection of the Congressional Budget Office today
  • $1.368
    trillion     the projection of the CBO in back in March (like we said, slight) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Mar 2010 09:54

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Politics: Twitter’s debating the CBO’s health-care findings



Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Mar 2010 09:50

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Politics: The CBO’s firm numbers on health care help the Democrats

  • $940B the amount the bill as written will cost to implement
  • $130B the amount the bill will cut the deficit in the next ten years
  • $1.2T the amount the bill will cut in the ten years after that source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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