The finances of the two Social Security trust funds—one for Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and the other for Disability Insurance (DI) —worsened over the past year. The recession caused a drop in revenues from payroll taxes and may have encouraged some people to apply for benefits sooner than they otherwise would have. Further, as expected, more and more members of the baby boom generation have begun to collect benefits.
March 2010
As awareness of global climate change has expanded over past decades, Congresses and Administrations have committed several billion dollars annually to studying climate change and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide. Most of that spending is done by the Department of Energy (DOE) and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, although a dozen other federal agencies also participate. The effort has included funding science and technology, creating tax preferences, and assisting other countries in their attempts to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions.
The federal government helps students finance higher education through two major loan programs—one that guarantees loans made by private lenders, and one that makes loans directly to borrowers. Between 2000 and 2009, the volume of outstanding federal student loans more than quadrupled, from about $149 billion to about $630 billion.
This afternoon CBO released a report presenting its analysis of the budgetary proposals contained in the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2011. This report provides more detail than the preliminary analysis that CBO released on March 5, which was discussed in a blog entry that same day. Our latest report differs slightly from the earlier one because it incorporates the impact of some legislation that has recently been enacted.
Last night CBO released a cost estimate for the reconciliation proposal that represents one component of the health care legislation being considered by the Congress. The other component is a bill, H.R. 3590, that the Senate passed in December.
Yesterday CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) completed a preliminary estimate of the direct spending and revenue effects of the reconciliation proposal that represents one component of the health care legislation being considered by the Congress. The other component is a bill, H.R. 3590, that the Senate passed in December.
The Congress is considering the pending health care legislation in two components: One is a bill (H.R. 3590) that the Senate passed in December; the other is a reconciliation bill that would modify the Senate-passed bill in a number of ways. (In general, a reconciliation bill seeks to implement instructions in the Congressional budget resolution in order to achieve the budgetary goals set forth in that resolution; special parliamentary procedures apply to the consideration of such bills.)
Today CBO released the third of its statutory reports on transactions undertaken as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). This report discusses CBO’s estimate of the costs of those transactions initiated as of February 17, 2010, as well as possible future transactions that could be undertaken with the available authority.
This afternoon CBO responded to Senator Greggs requestfor estimates of the budgetary impact of the Presidents proposal to eliminate the federal program that provides guarantees for student loans and to replace those loans with direct loans made by the Department of Education.
In its March 11, 2010, cost estimate for H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), as passed by the Senate, CBO indicated that it had identified at least $50 billion in specified and estimated authorizations of discretionary spending that might be involved in implementing that legislation. Discretionary costs under PPACA would arise from the effects of the legislation on several federal agencies (especially the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services) and on a number of new and existing programs.