Word: cbo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...July, Congress allocated $300 billion for a new plan, Hope for Homeowners, to help borrowers stay in their houses. It went into effect this month, but analysts warn that it won't stop the rise in foreclosures. An April report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that banks would refinance only about 400,000 home loans, possibly fewer. And in recent congressional testimony, officials from JPMorgan Chase said only about $2.5 billion of its home loans (some 14,000 borrowers) of the $845 billion in home loans it services would qualify for the program. Worse, warns the CBO, nearly...
This balancing act keeps the plan from being an outright bailout for either lenders or borrowers. But it also limits the likely uptake. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has made two estimates--one projects that 500,000 loans would be converted over the three-year life of the program, and the other projects 400,000. If that range proves correct, the plan wouldn't cost taxpayers much; the CBO estimates $729 million to $1.7 billion, depending on the uptake. By contrast, the Defense Department spends about $2 billion a week in Iraq...
...Usually, greater accumulated knowledge and skills come with increased experience," the report notes. "Because most draftees leave after completing a two-year obligation, a draft might affect the services' ability to perform those functions efficiently." To maintain the same capability, the CBO suggests, the Army might have to grow, which could eliminate any savings. On the other hand, increased training costs for draftees - with less time in uniform, more have to be trained - could be offset by cuts in advertising and bonuses now used to entice volunteer recruits...
...report says that while 91% of last year's recruits were high school graduates, only 80% of U.S. residents aged 18 to 24 have attained that level of education. And high school graduates, the military says, make better soldiers than dropouts. The CBO, which does not make recommendations but only charts options for lawmakers, estimates that somewhere between 27,000 and 165,000 would be drafted each year. That relatively small slice - some 2 million males turn 18 each year - could resurrect the problems seen in the Vietnam era when deferments and friendly draft boards kept some well-connected young...
...doesn't make military or economic sense to launch the draft, what about the notion of fairness? Critics have claimed that minorities are over-represented in the all-volunteer military because they have fewer options in the civilian world. The CBO disputes that, saying that "members of the armed forces are racially and ethnically diverse." African Americans accounted for 13% of active-duty recruits in 2005, just under their 14% share of 17-to-49-year-olds in the overall U.S. population. And minorities are not being used as cannon fodder. "Data on fatalities indicate that minorities are not being...