Has the Congressional Budget Office Joined the Push for Cutting Social Security?

[Hannah Bell]

CBO Changes Methodology for 2010 Long-Term Budget Projection

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is generally trusted as an impartial agency without a political agenda. A new study from the Center for Economic and policy Research (CEPR), however, calls attention to a change in the most recent long-term budget projections that is a departure from CBO’s past methodology and results in stark differences in projections for the impact of deficits on economic growth.

“While there is no universal model to apply to these types of projections, it is unusual that the CBO would, without explanation, make a change that so significantly alters long term projections,” said Dean Baker, a Co-Director of CEPR and author of the report.

“Has CBO Joined the Push for Cutting Social Security,” notes that the CBO has changed its modeling of the impact of deficits and debt on private investment. The result is that the long-term budget projections for 2010 show far more crowding out of investment than the 2009 projections, leading deficits to have a substantially more negative impact on GNP growth. These growth projections have been accepted in the media and many policy discussions as reliable projections for the impact of deficits on growth.

At a time when Congress is poised to make significant decision on the future of the America’s most important social programs, it is essential that policymakers understand the unusual nature of these latest projections.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/cbo-changes-methodology-for-budget-projection

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. The CBO will have their heads cut off - there will be no cuts in social security

so they had better stop making these silly projections. Cut war budgets baby.

[dkf]

2. Crowding out in an era of hoarding cash?

Odd.

[Hannah Bell]

3. "crowding out" in a depression? hardly.

yeah, it's baloney, which would seem to indicate that cbo is providing ammo to the cat food crowd.

[Octafish]

4. By the time they're done, we'll wish we'd given it to Wall Street.

Better that pirates get to enjoy the loot than the mafia.

[dkf]

5. That bad huh?

You could be right.