Coal-powered facilities account for roughly a third of all U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, and most climate scientists believe that the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could have costly consequences.
June 2012
The federal government provides credit assistance to individuals and businesses in the form of direct loans and through guarantees of loans made by private financial institutions. In a report requested by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, CBO provides an illustrative analysis of the federal government’s costs for those credit programs following two approaches:
CBO is in the process of reviewing the Supreme Court’s decision related to the Affordable Care Act to assess the effect on CBO’s projections of federal spending and revenue under current law. We expect that this assessment will probably take some time.
I was pleased to speak early yesterday with a group of reporters who gather regularly at the invitation of the Christian Science Monitor. (Audio of the event is below.)
The federal government spends roughly $1 trillion on health care programs each year, so it is easy to imagine that policies that promote a healthier population could have a significant impact on the federal budget.
The federal government incurred a budget deficit of $845 billion in the first eight months of fiscal year 2012, CBO estimates in its latest Monthly Budget Review—about $80 billion less than the shortfall reported during the same period last year. Without shifts in the timing of certain payments the deficit so far this year would have been about $50 billion smaller than last year’s figure. Revenues were 5 percent higher and outlays slightly lower than they were at this point in 2011.
I testified this morning to the House Budget Committee about the Long-Term Budget Outlook that CBO released yesterday.
I explained that we had assessed that outlook under two very different assumptions about future policies for federal revenues and spending, and that the budgetary and economic outcomes under those two scenarios would be starkly different. I highlighted two specific implications of the long-term projections:
This morning CBO released the latest in its series of reports on the long-term budget outlook. CBO also published an infographic that highlights the key points of the report. Tomorrow, I will testify on the key findings of the report before the House Budget Committee.