Word: cbo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rich range of options shows, closing the budget gap is not an economic or technical problem. It is a political problem. Voters, being human, want more benefits and fewer taxes, and politicians, being politicians, respond to the voters. Says the CBO's Penner: "All spending does some good for someone, and all taxes do some harm to someone. So there is never a good spending cut or tax increase in the eyes of the entire electorate...
Using a more realistic forecast that interest rates will drop only slightly, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated last week that the shortfall might reach $248 billion in 1989. even if all the deficit-cutting measures proposed in the Reagan budget are adopted. That gigantic number is also optimistic: the CBO assumed no new recession for the rest of the decade. Charles Schultze. chief 'economic adviser for Jimmy Carand now a senior fellow at Washington's Brookings Institution, estimates that if another downturn occurs and nothing has been done in the meantime to close the budget...
Reagan has tried to blame the current deficits on a legacy of freewheeling Government spending that he inherited from past Administrations. But an analysis by the CBO challenges that contention. If no laws had been changed during the Reagan years, says the CBO, the budget would be headed toward an $11 billion surplus by 1989. The rise in the deficit results mainly from the 23% personal income tax cut that Reagan pushed through Congress in 1981 and his large military buildup. By 1989 increases in defense spending will almost completely offset the cuts Reagan and Congress have made in domestic...
Penner brings impressive credentials to the CBO. As chief economist for the Office of Management and Budget during the Ford Administration, he learned how to find his way through the thick forest of figures in the budget. After President Ford lost the 1976 election, Penner joined the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization in Washington, and became a leading expert on tax policy. Says David Stockman, the Reagan Administration's Budget Director: "Penner is the best available person for the job at CBO. He's experienced, knowledgeable and technically sound...
...calls for tax increases have been putting him at odds with White House policy and rankling a few congressional Republicans. After Penner advocated higher taxes at an American Enterprise Institute luncheon in June, a reporter asked him, "How can you hope to have a chance at that CBO job when you say things like that?" Snapped Penner: "I refuse to run a campaign for the job. All I can do is say what I think and not worry about...