Congressional Budget Office: Difference between revisions

The CBO's creation stems from a fight between President [[Richard Nixon]] and a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]-controlled [[United States Congress|Congress]]. Congress wanted to protect its [[power of the purse]] from the executive.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|author=Sarah Binder|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/15/this-is-why-the-congressional-budget-office-will-likely-survive-republican-attacks/|title=This is why the Congressional Budget Office will likely survive Republican attacks|newspaper=Washington Post|date=March 15, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/3/13/14860856/congressional-budget-office-cbo-explained|title=The Congressional Budget Office, explained|work=Vox|access-date=2017-03-23}}</ref> The CBO was created "within the legislative branch to bolster Congress's budgetary understanding and ability to act. Lawmakers' aim was both technical and political: Generate a source of budgetary expertise to aid in writing annual budgets and lessen the legislature's reliance on the president's [[Office of Management and Budget]]."<ref name=":0" /> In 2015, the Brookings Institution reported that since its creation, the CBO has since supplanted the OMB "as the authoritative source of information on the economy and the budget in the eyes of Congress, the press, and the public."<ref name="Joyce"/>

A March 2017 survey of leading economists shows a consensus behind the notion that "adjusting for legal restrictions on what the CBO can assume about future legislation and events, the CBO has historically issued credible forecasts of the effects of both Democratic and Republican legislative proposals."<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/the-cbo|title=The CBO|publisher=[[Initiative on Global Markets]] (IGM), [[University of Chicago]] [[Booth School of Business]]|language=en-US|date=March 21, 2017}}</ref> According to MIT economist [[David Autor]], the "CBO has a good track record with a very difficult assignment. It errs, but not systematically or with partisan intent."<ref name=":1" /> According to Yale economist [[Christopher Udry]], "There is no credible evidence of partisan bias."<ref name=":1" /> Economist [[Walter E. Williams]], a [[classical liberal]], wrote in 1998 that the CBO was well-regarded for its "honest numbers" on fiscal and economic matters.<ref name="Joyce" /> According to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', "the CBO's analyses and forecasting are regarded as good or better than others doing similar work... economists say that the CBO's economic projections generally compare favorably against other outfits, and its long-term budget estimates have been fairly accurate."<ref name=":2" />