With Congress continuing its spring break next week, let’s pause to look at the new laws President Obama signed last week, some consequential, some not. Public Law 112-103 is called “the HALE Scouts Act.” It conveys approximately 140 acres of land in the Ouachita National Forest in Oklahoma to the Indian Nations Council, Inc., of [...]
The action is in the House Budget Committee this week. That’s the committee that looks after Congress’ constitutional power to spend, collect revenue, and borrow. (The House committee must work with its Senate counterpart, of course). The budget committees set spending amounts each year before the appropriations committees go to work on the actual spending—though [...]
It has never been more important for Congress to follow the regular budget and spending process. Deficits are spiraling out of control, threatening the financial solvency of the country. While taxpayers are required by law to file tax returns by April 15th, Congress appears ready to give their budgeting deadline a miss. In fact, according [...]
Do a web search on “16,000 IRS agents” and you’ll see a lot of foment about what it will take to enforce the “individual mandate” requiring everyone to buy health insurance under the new health care overhaul law. According to some, the need for 16,500 agents is a “big lie.” FactCheck.org did an analysis of [...]
Just under $7,900 is the cost per family that we put on the two health care bills the House votes on today. That’s the cost of government taxing and spending, and it doesn’t include the spending the government would require of all of us in the “individual mandate.” A lot of numbers are going around, [...]
The news swept through Washington like a snowstorm this weekend: A deal has been reached on a health care bill in the Senate. The current plan is for a vote on passage Christmas eve. If it does pass, a House-Senate compromise bill will have to be worked out. That will happen next year. Meanwhile, a [...]
A cost estimate for the health care bill under debate in the Senate comes to just shy of $8,000 per U.S. family. It’s an incomplete cost estimate according to the Congressional Budget Office, which produced it.
A new cost estimate for the health care bill that the House passed Saturday puts it at about $15,000 per U.S. family. That’s a lot of scratch! An earlier estimate came in at only half that much. But it’s important not to over-read the estimate. Instead, familiarize yourself with our methodology for scoring bills. We [...]
Health care reform legislation will be debated in the House this coming week, and the issue is all teed up. H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was introduced last week—all 1,990 pages of it. You can see it by clicking “Read the bill” in the “Learn more” box on the bill’s page. [...]
The bill to extend unemployment benefits another little while has gotten a score from the CBO. That’s the Congressional Budget Office, a small agency that does economic modeling and estimates about the spending and revenue effects of pending bills. You can see the analysis itself by going to the “Learn More” box on the page [...]