Tag: CBO

Conservatives scramble to spin CBO analysis showing clear benefits of minimum wage increase

AlterNet logoEver since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the United States’ first national minimum wage in 1938, there have been Republicans and fiscal conservatives insisting that minimum wages are a job killer. FDR, however, told Republicans to relax — a mandatory 25 cents per hour wouldn’t destroy the U.S. economy or hamper the success of his New Deal — and 81 years later, a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study is showing that increasing the national minimum wage to $15 per hour would be economically beneficial. Naturally, fiscal conservatives are scrambling to spin the study to their liking.

The benefits, according to the CBO: Americans living belong the poverty line would see a 5.3% earnings increase, and wages would rise for up to 27.3 million workers. Workers already making more than $15 per hour would likely see their wages rise as well.

That’s the positive part of the CBO’s cost/benefit analysis, which also found that under a $15 minimum wage, Americans would be paying about 0.3% more for goods and services. Business owners would see a higher overhead if they started paying employees more.

View the complete July 11 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

CBO: Funding CHIP for 10 years would actually save $6 billion

The following article by Emily C. Singer was posted on the mic.com website January 11, 2018:

Funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program for 10 years could actually save the government money, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a report published Thursday — a factoid that supporters of soon-to-expire program are sure to use as they lobby for its reauthorization.

Funding the program — which provides health insurance to nearly 9 million children from low-income families — for 10 years would save the federal government $6 billion, according to the CBO’s report.

Funding CHIP is cheaper than moving the covered children to other coverage options, including Medicaid and through subsidized plans in the Affordable Care Act marketplace, according to the CBO. Continue reading “CBO: Funding CHIP for 10 years would actually save $6 billion”

CBO: Insurance Market Stabilization Impact Null If Mandate Repealed

The following article by Joe Williams was posted on the Roll Call website November 29, 2017:

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Legislation from the duo at the helm of the Senate health panel would do little to improve the number of uninsured individuals if the mandate created by the 2010 health law is repealed, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

A repeal of the mandate — which requires individuals to purchase insurance or pay a yearly fine — is currently included in the GOP bill to overhaul the U.S. tax code. Continue reading “CBO: Insurance Market Stabilization Impact Null If Mandate Repealed”

House Defeats Amendment to Cut One-Third of CBO Staff

The following article by Lindsey McPherson was posted on the Roll Call website July 26, 2017:

The House on Wednesday night rejected, 116-309, an amendment that would have eliminated one-third of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The amendment, offered by Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith to the four-bill appropriations minibus the House is currently debating, would have abolished CBO’s 89-employee budget analysis division and saved a total of $15 million in salaries. Roughly half of Republicans joined Democrats in voting down the amendment.

House Freedom Caucus leaders designed the amendment to have CBO cut down on in-house staff and aggregate analyses from outside groups. Continue reading “House Defeats Amendment to Cut One-Third of CBO Staff”

DFL Chair Statement on CBO Score for Senate Republican Health Care Bill

ST. PAUL, MN – Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Chair Ken Martin released the following statement today in response to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of Senate Republican’s proposed health care bill.

“Today’s nonpartisan report confirms what we already knew: The Republican’s health care bill hurts everyday Americans. This cruel bill would deprive 22 million Americans of the health care they need and deserve. For the most vulnerable—the disabled, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions—this bill would have devastating consequences. For those lucky enough to keep their insurance, it would raise costs while reducing quality. It would force middle-class families to pay more out of pocket, small businesses to pay higher premiums, and older Americans to pay more for less coverage.” Continue reading “DFL Chair Statement on CBO Score for Senate Republican Health Care Bill”

Senate Democrats shine light on health bill’s longer-term effect on Medicaid

The following article by Amy Goldstein was posted on the Washington Post website June 29, 2017:

In asking the Congressional Budget Office to take a longer view of Senate Republicans’ troubled health-care plan, the chamber’s Democrats maneuvered to train a spotlight on exactly what the GOP has sought to bury.

The Better Care Reconciliation Act relies on the time-honored political strategy of pressing a bill’s most profound effects years into the future — in this case, in severely constricting the main source of public health insurance for poor and vulnerable Americans.

Until Thursday, that scenario had been cloaked in arcane legislative language about per-capita caps and varying inflation adjustments. What Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeepers did, at the prodding of the Senate Finance Committee’s senior Democrat, is make clear that the GOP legislation would squeeze federal Medicaid spending by 35 percent by the end of two decades, compared with current law. Continue reading “Senate Democrats shine light on health bill’s longer-term effect on Medicaid”

Republicans Disregarded the C.B.O., but It Won’t Be Ignored

The following article by Margot Sanger-Katz was posted on the New York Times website May 5, 2017:

Now that the House has passed its big health care bill, it will find out what that bill could actually do.

The Congressional Budget Office, Washington’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, did not have time to evaluate the effects of the American Health Care Act before Thursday’s vote, since the bill was being amended until just before passage. But the budget office will not ignore the health law, and next week it is expected to release detailed estimates of how many people will be covered by the bill, and at what cost to the government.

Several senators have said they won’t proceed with the bill until they know more about its effects.

Republicans’ reluctance to wait for updated estimates became a rallying cry among Democrats critical of the bill. Democrats called out “Where’s the score?” on the House floor Thursday during debate over the bill.

Continue reading “Republicans Disregarded the C.B.O., but It Won’t Be Ignored”

Fact-checking the White House’s rhetoric on the CBO report

The following article by Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website March 14, 2017:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer offered a number of attacks and claims during a news briefing dominated by the new Congressional Budget Office report on the House Republican replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act. The report estimated that 24 million fewer people would have health insurance in 2026 if the law were approved in its current form, causing political headaches for the effort to replace Obamacare. Here’s a guide to his rhetoric.

“CBO coverage estimates are consistently wrong and more importantly do not take into consideration the comprehensive nature of this three-prong plan to repeal and replace Obamacare with the American Health Care Act.”

Continue reading “Fact-checking the White House’s rhetoric on the CBO report”