The Congressional Budget Office: “An Excellent Skunk at the Congressional Picnic”

At the Washington Post, Philip Joyce writes:

“Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mick Mulvaney, recently said that ‘the time of CBO has probably come and gone,’ noting that there are plenty of other places, including the OMB itself and Washington think tanks, that can estimate the costs of policies. Mulvaney is far from the first official to disagree with the CBO’s numbers, but he is one of very few people who want to get rid of the CBO altogether. He joins former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been trying to gut the CBO for decades. In fact, a 1995 argument by Gingrich that the agency should be cleaned out prompted The Washington Post, in an editorial, to remind readers of the important role that CBO had played as ‘an excellent skunk’ at the ‘congressional picnic.'”

Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/13/the-trump-administration-detests-the-congressional-budget-office-heres-why-its-important/?utm_term=.0c07b779b933

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Topics: Budget & Appropriations
Tags: Philip Joyce