The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking

Front Cover
Georgetown University Press, Apr 18, 2011 - Political Science - 264 pages

Created in 1974, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has become one of the most influential forces in national policymaking. A critical component of our system of checks and balances, the CBO has given Congress the analytical capacity to challenge the president on budget issues while it protects the public interest, providing honest numbers about Congress's own budget proposals. The book discusses the CBO’s role in larger budget policy and the more narrow "scoring" of individual legislation, such as its role in the 2009–2010 Obama health care reform. It also describes how the first director, Alice Rivlin, and seven successors managed to create and sustain a nonpartisan, highly credible agency in the middle of one of the most partisan institutions imaginable.

The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policy draws on interviews with high-level participants in the budget debates of the last 35 years to tell the story of the CBO. A combination of political history, economic history, and organizational development, The Congressional Budget Office offers an important, first book-length history of this influential agency.

 

Contents

Chapter 1 Truth Power and Consequences
1
Chapter 2 Organizing for Nonpartisan Analysis
15
Chapter 3 Macrobudgeting
53
Chapter 4 Microbudgeting
93
Chapter 5 Policy Analysis
122
Bringing It All Together
154
Chapter 7 Obama Health Care Reform
179
Chapter 8 An Excellent Skunk?
207
Index
239
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking
Philip G. Joyce
No preview available - 2011

Common terms and phrases

administration agency Alice Rivlin appropriations argued balanced budget Barry Anderson baseline bill billion Budget Act budget analysis budget process budget resolution budgetary treatment Bush Carter energy CBO analysis CBO cost estimates CBO director CBO report CBO staff CBO’s challenge changes chapter Clinton health Clinton plan concerning Congressional Budget Office credibility Crippen debate Democrats dynamic scoring economic effects Elmendorf enacted fact Fannie Mae February February 9 federal budget federal government Finance fiscal forecast Freddie Freddie Mac GSEs health care reform Holtz-Eakin House Budget Committee Ibid important interview issues January June legislation major mandates Medicare members of Congress needed nonpartisan noted numbers O’Neill organization Orszag particularly Penner Peter Orszag policy analysis policymaking political prescription drug President Obama president's program divisions proposals Reagan reduce Reischauer Republicans response role scorekeeping Senate Budget Committee sess Social Security spending substantial tax cuts tion Washington Post White House

About the author (2011)

Philip G. Joyce is a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. He has twelve years of public sector work experience, including five years with the United States Congressional Budget Office, and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Congressional Budget Office: Honest Numbers, Power, and Policymaking
American Governance and Public Policy series
AuthorPhilip G. Joyce
ContributorPhilip G. Joyce
PublisherGeorgetown University Press, 2011
ISBN1589017587, 9781589017580
Length264 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration
Political Science / Public Policy / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan