Word: cbo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Before sorting through these competing claims, it's worth noting that both men are playing with funny money. Nobody knows for sure if the gaudy surplus projections will materialize. And there's legitimate debate about the usefulness of the Congressional Budget Office's fiscal predictions. "Most of the CBO's estimates are exaggerated," says fiscal hawk Robert Reischauer, a former CBO director who is now head of the Urban Institute. "The surplus is uncertain...
...Before sorting through these competing claims, it's worth noting that both men are playing with funny money. Nobody knows for sure if the gaudy surplus projections will materialize. And there's legitimate debate about the usefulness of the Congressional Budget Office's fiscal predictions. "Most of the CBO's estimates are exaggerated," says fiscal hawk Robert Reischauer, a former CBO director who is now head of the Urban Institute. "The surplus is uncertain...
...Half the surplus will be needed for Social Security, and both candidates promise that money is off limits. And the projected $2.2 trillion that remains may turn out to be far less. For one thing, the CBO estimates do not account for the fact that many popular tax breaks now scheduled to expire will almost certainly be renewed. The projections also assume that discretionary spending, such as the defense and education budgets, will grow no faster than inflation. Judging from recent history, Congress is unlikely to show that kind of restraint. "At best, we have a small surplus, nothing like...
Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that a system with 250 land-based interceptors, backed by many congressional Republicans, would cost $60 billion--more than double the $25.6 billion the Pentagon projected for a 100-interceptor system. The U.S. space shield's satellites would detect the launch of an enemy missile and cue ground-based radars to find it. Data on its path would be downloaded into the interceptors before their launch from mainland Alaska bases, with updates radioed to them in flight. Four interceptors, fired two at a time, would be dedicated to each incoming warhead...
...proposed hardware has been shown to work. In fact, there is concern that the new, more powerful booster--which will shake the kill vehicle 10 times as hard as the test booster now being used--could damage its own optics or electronics and render "the interceptor impotent," the CBO said last week. Critics say foes could overwhelm the system with cheap decoys. They note that it will do nothing to keep terrorists from smuggling a weapon into the U.S. Clinton has said he will decide by fall whether or not to build such a system, based on the threat...