Yesterday I gave a talk over lunch to the National Economists Club. If Id known when I was invited how much legislative activity would be occurring this week, I wouldnt have agreedbut I enjoyed the chance to talk with the group.
September 2009
Yesterday CBO released a letter responding to a request by the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance for additional information about health insurance coverage among nonelderly unauthorized immigrants under current law and under proposals being considered in the Senate and the House.
Current Law
Yesterday CBO released a letter responding to questions from the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee about the subsidies offered through the insurance exchanges and enrollees payments for that coverage under the specifications for the Chairmans mark for proposed health care legislation that were provided by the staff of the Finance Committee on September 15, 2009.
Yesterday CBO released a letter responding to questions from the Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget abouthow two policy options for health care would affect the budget deficit over the long term. One option would replace the current tax exclusion for premiums for employment-based health insurance with a tax credit that would grow over time at a rate less than that of health care inflation.
Today CBO released a report that summarizes its analyses of the economic effects of proposed policy changes aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Some legislation considered by the current and previous Congresses has proposed combining cap-and-trade programs with various regulatory standards to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Yesterday CBO released anissue briefthat describes how regulatory standards can interact with a cap-and-trade program, using examples related to H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, which passed the House of Representatives on June 26, 2009.
CBO has just issued a preliminary analysis of specifications for the Chairmans mark of the Americas Healthy Future Act, which was released by the Senate Finance Committee earlier today.
Today CBO released a letter responding to a number of questions from the Ranking Memberof the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) about the effects of health insurance legislation considered by the Committee this summer. CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) issued a preliminary and partial analysis of that legislation as it was introduced on July 1, 2009.
Today CBO released a background paper examining whether the demand for assets, such as stocks and bonds, will fall after the retirement of the baby-boomer generationthe segment of the nations population born between 1946 and 1964, whose oldest members turned 62 in 2008. Some economists have warned of the possibility of a dramatic decline in demand as baby boomers sell off their assets to finance their retirement; they assert that the sell-off could cause a dramatic decline in prices.
Today CBO released its estimates of federal revenues and outlays for the first 11 months of fiscal year 2009. The federal budget deficit through August was almost $1.4 trillion, CBO estimates, close to $900billion greater than the deficit recorded through August 2008. Outlays were $518 billion (or 19 percent) higher and revenues $365 billion (or 16 percent) lower than the amounts recorded during the same period last year.