The Incidental Economist

Really I think the anger being directed at Cantor ought to directed at the Democrats for putting the CBO in this position. Like Peter Suderman wrote to Aaron, the issue is with the gimmicks used in the bill to get a good score, not anything the CBO did. The CBO did exactly what they were supposed to do. I am 100% certain that Doug Elmendorf knows that these were gimmicks, but in his role as a non-partisan scorekeeper who does not pass judgment he of course does not come out and say so. So the Democrats have put the CBO in the position of having their work criticized as misleading and useless, when they are only doing what they’re supposed to do, and then they hide behind the total objectivity of the CBO as cover for creating the gimmicks. That might be politically useful, but it’s harmful to our fiscal health and the future credibility of the CBO scoring process.