The accounting methodology used to measure the cost to taxpayers of federal loan guarantee programs such as the one that financed defunct solar company Solyndra may dramatically understate the programs’ financial risk to taxpayers. Simply put, the federal government ignores administrative costs and the risks of borrowers defaulting on their obligations. Under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, the cost of federal financing is measured according to a discounted rate based on the cost of lending Treasury securities. That includes the cost of average losses from loan defaults, but …
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill turn their attention to the budget as Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, testifies before the House Budget Committee. He’ll be talking about the CBO’s Long-Term Budget Outlook. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hear from the middle class about their economic struggles. Thomas Clements, who appeared in a recent Heritage and Institute for Energy Research video, is among the witnesses. Today at Heritage we’ll host freshman Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY) for the monthly Conservative Women’s Network lecture. …
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Elmendorf recently spoke at the University of Southern California about the economic impact of Obamacare. He predicts that Obamacare will further depress the nation’s employment picture. CBO’s analysis of Obamacare predicts that it will reduce the amount of labor being used in the economy by roughly half a percent. Elmendorf states that this impact will be small, but in reality the impact is small only in relative terms. For instance, a half-percent loss in jobs in the American economy today would translate into about …
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testified on October 14 before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to discuss the economic effects of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the effects – most notably the effects of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade legislation. Although Elmendorf felt that Waxman-Markey could greatly reduce the long-term risks of climate change, he acknowledged that “such legislation would also reduce economic activity through a number of different channels.” Note: Director Elmendorf’s expertise is budgets and economics, not climate science. Some of the channels mentioned …
