the CBO

The CBO figures are based on preliminary data but should be very close to the Treasury Department's official tally due in a week or so.

The costliest Fed lending program during the crisis was the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, the CBO said.

Newt Gingrich, one of the Republican contenders for the party's presidential nomination, recently called the CBO a "socialist" institution.

On the heels of that shock, reports surfaced suggesting that the CBO's assessment of the Baucus plan put its price tag at $1. 5 trillion.

Unlike the White House's calculations, the CBO estimate assumes all policies will stay exactly as they are.

Of course, the CBO's projection at the time assumed that revenue and spending policies would be maintained.

Meanwhile, all manner of budgeting chicanery is being used to reduce the apparent cost and keep the CBO "score" to below $900 billion.

The causes of the good fortune of those at the top are disputed, but the CBO provides some useful detail on that too.

States, the CBO estimates, would have to raise revenue or cut aggressively to offset the drop in federal spending.

Without a federal formulary , the government "would lack the leverage to obtain significant discounts" through negotiations, the CBO said.

But American plans for a major war to, say, defend South Korea have in the past envisaged dispatching 20 or 21 brigades, notes the CBO.

New cost estimates from the CBO, for instance, recently changed the terms of America's health-care debate.

In the U. S. alone, the CBO estimates that the public debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 40% to 80%, or about $9 trillion.

Analysis of the CBO results suggests that the implicit tax is relatively progressive.

The CBO figures show that this is a big problem with the House plan, whose shortfall will balloon beyond the ten-year horizon.

The CBO found that his plan would lower premiums for millions of Americans, and those facing hikes would get better coverage.

Yet this would also be 40 per cent of the share forecast in the CBO's baseline.

The CBO thinks this will probably lead to reduced consumption of health-care services and reduced access to advanced technology.

According to the CBO, the increase would still not sustain the current surge in Iraq without breaching the rotation guidelines.

The CBO estimates the package will hold the federal budget deficit $143 billion lower over 10 years than it would otherwise be.

The CBO found that Ryan's plan would, by 2030, essentially force 45% of retirees to pay for 68% of the costs currently paid for by Medicare.

Alas, the IMAC idea hit a snag on July 25th when the CBO insisted that it would not save much money over the next ten years.

The CBO analysis comes at a sensitive time for US fiscal policy and the economy.

The CBO found that the House bill fails to reduce the pace of health-care spending growth.

Mr Ryan's roadmap takes as its starting point the CBO's long-term budget forecast.

The CBO projects that the federal debt as a share of the economy will double over the next decade, from about 41% last year to 82% by 2019.

The CBO's estimates attacked the core of Mr Obama's case and they especially rattled moderate Democrats.

Overall, suggests the CBO, the elderly would bear 68 per cent of the costs of insurance by 2030.

But when the CBO did the same sums a decade ago, says Ms Meeker, the critical point was reached in 2060.

The CBO also estimated that 95% of legal U. S. residents would have insurance by 2019, up from 83% today.

The CBO was asked to estimate the bill's direct costs to consumers in 2020.

In general, the CBO concludes, total benefit levels should be higher under the plan, but also somewhat less certain.

Britain's Tories want to copy the CBO model.

The CBO again voiced its concern that forecasts for public finances ten years from now do not look promising.

According to the CBO, families in the top 20% pay average federal taxes of 25. 1%.

In January, the CBO forecast almost $1. 2 trillion in red ink for fiscal 2009.