Controversial CBO Report On Stimulus Turns Out Not To Exist

Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.

Funny thing is, there is no such report.

"We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study," a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.

Rather, the nonpartisan CBO ran a small portion of an earlier version of the stimulus plan through a computer program that uses a standard formula to determine a score -- how quickly money will be spent. The score only dealt with the part of the stimulus headed for the Appropriations Committee and left out the parts bound for the Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committee.

Because it dealt with just a part of the stimulus, it estimated the spending rate for only about $300 billion of the $825 billion plan. Significant changes have been made to the part of the bill the CBO looked at.

The CBO numbers were given to a small number of congressional Democrats and Republicans, but were not posted online because they're not an official CBO product. (Media outlets, while reporting widely about the "report," have declined to post it online. Here's the whole thing.) Democratic aides say they are certain that the GOP leaked it to the Associated Press in order to undercut the spending portion of the stimulus.

A Republican aide for the House Appropriations Committee denied involvement, saying that her staff did not see the CBO numbers until after the AP reported them. The Washington Post followed the AP and reported that aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) provided the report.

"I didn't leak it. It was sent to the Hill and considered public. If a reporter was writing on it I made sure they had access to it; it's a public document," said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart in an e-mail.

Story continues below

advertisement

Following the press reports, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) pounced, citing the AP, Post, and other reports to make the case that the spending was wasteful. Republican aides roamed the Capitol press galleries, flogging the CBO numbers.

The press broadly picked up on it and a simple narrative developed: the stimulus bill won't stimulate the economy. The administration tried to push back against the CBO numbers, sending around a set of talking points making the case that the "new CBO spendout rate report is being taken out of context."

Nevertheless, the narrative continued to dominate. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs was asked about the CBO numbers Friday by Fox News' Major Garrett, who told Gibbs that "the CBO has said that $219 billion of the $825 billion in the House bill cannot be spent and will not be spent until 2011 at the earliest....What is the President's appraisal of that CBO analysis, and what do you know here that the Congressional Budget Office, a neutral observer, doesn't know?"

Gibbs told the press that the report looked at "only a portion of the legislation and looked at that portion of the legislation before it began the committee process." Gibbs added that it reflected "a snapshot in time that's long past."

The White House followed up with a letter from Peter Orszag, head of the Office of Management and Budget. The CBO "analysis, however, did not assess the overall package," wrote Orszag. "Our analysis indicates that at least 75 percent of the overall package (including its tax component and the other spending provisions that were not analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office) will be spent over the next year and a half."

A new CBO score is due out next week.

Update: Tim Fernholz over at Tapped caught this also and has more details.

Comments

[mjtaylor22]

HAVE U NOTICED MORE REPUGNANT RANTS ON HUFFO POST, THYE LOVE TO COME IN AND RAIN RAIN ON THE PARADE,
MAYBE THEY LIKE UR SITES CAUSE THEY ARE THE ONY ONE'S SPEWING HATE
AND WE ARE SO RATIONAL. ON THEIR SITES, I FIND HATE, LIES, DECEIT, AND MORE HATE. IT IS SICKENING

[Ipanemagirl]

I dont understand. If the republicans still did not agree to pass the stimulus, why did Obama give into so many issues for them? He should have clearly said: I'm tryng to be reasonable here but if you dont want to make the effort , then screw it !! I'm passing it w/o any concessions then.
They should be catering to him, not the other way around. Bush days are over!
I am also disappointed that Obama had to let Planned parenthood down...one of the most efficient and vital institutions we have in this country. How many abortions and stds have been avoided through their help and guidance and the contraceptives that this institution alone is willing to give for free to assist our youth and the underpriviledged. All these concessions for no gain by the republicans?
They are behaving like spoiled children, now tell them to go sit in the corner for some "time out!"
And mr. Boehner, I think you are spending too much time in your tanning booth because your brain cells seem to be drying out.Your comments are totally irrational and you are fighting against the people's common good. What a selfish hippocrite!

[mjtaylor22]

oBAMA IS EXTENDING HIS HAND, AND ALLOWING THEM TO FLOUNDER, THEY HAVE NO NEW IDEAS, JUST COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE IDEAS BEING PRESENTED. AND IT IS MORE OBVIOUS DAILY
what will come of this is the destruction of the RNC, these idiots will vote against the plan again and again, the American People , who sit in the middle will see more and more that their campaign mentality is their party mentality, and that their base, are crazed racist, gay haters, only interested in themselves. and no one with their right minds will associate with them.
Obama and the American people know we need this stimulus, more than the financial institutions who caused this mess did. for much of this, their vote is not even needed, so what will happen is their constant gibberish, and slanting of the issue, will further cause them to be pushed out of policy decisions, because the majority is on the Dems side, maybe not flilbuster proff totally, but hard to over come that train, when it moves on without you. what will they do when no one asks their opinion,
picture that

[WIpatriot]

What a piss-poor example of leadership these assclowns are.

[StaggerLee]

Mr. Grim you have been outed by one of the best, Bob Somerby http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh012709.shtml
Propaganda doesn't look any better when the left does it than when the right does, we are better than this. Turn in you journalism credentials mr. Grim and go back to righting fairy tales (see what I just did there).

[mcer]

I am a proud democrat.
But at this point I don't care who is in the majority, I want to see some
oversight of our money that is being lavished on these big institutions
that have so for squandered everything that has been given to them:
*executive still getting huge salaries and pensions,
*reckless boards going unchecked,
*jet planes purchased by executives of the same banking institutions
that had their hats in their hands just a few months ago,
*millions of dollars spent on executive offices,
*banks hoarding taxpayers' money,
*credit card companies ripping off taxpayers,

What the hell is going on here?! If there is ever going to be a recovery, these
practices must stop. And it is up to the American public to demand that
government do something to stop it!

[acecat]

Boehner--way to show Americans how on top of things you are! Now that you're trying to prove that you've got a better idea and trying to block passage of the stimulus package, we'll be SURE to listen to you!! Sheesh--makes me embarassed to be from Ohio...

[aic4ever]

You know, you would think if you were going to write that the report was a lie, you would at least go to CBO's website and check on it.

The CBO did do a report in November on a preliminary version of this same stimulus plan that merely had less money in it.

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9918/SenateStimulusInfrastructureByrdLtr.pdf

Their analysis on the amount of time it takes for amounts of money to work into the economy doesn't change just because the numbers got bigger.

Way to take the extra 30 seconds to look it up, Grim.

[DrPrescription]

According to the WSJ, which is a publication unlike the Huff Post, the CBO report vanished into thin air after being published on the appropriations committee website. They say that only $26 billion would be spent in the current fiscal year and $110 billion spent in the next fiscal year. Total new spending would be $355 billion in the stimulus plan.

I don't blame the Democrats from taking this off their website. The CBO is actually controlled by Democrats since they became the majority. I am not saying the Democrats are bad people or the Republicans. They certainly don't understand the problem. This will not work. It is based on what is called the Keynesian multiplier where every dollar spent yields 1.5 times that in greater output. This has been thoroughly discredited. The People, government, cannot spend their way to wealth. If they could why not a $50 trillion stimulus and we could all retire wealthy. It just doesn't make sense.

This will ultimately fail and we should sweep both parties out on their duffs and replace them with people who actually know what they are doing. America is fast approaching a third world country.

[mjtaylor22]

did u read , the article said exactly that, but if u add 500 billion , that WOULD BE A DIFFERENT SCENARIO, wow, typical so typical of you

[philwynk]

Wow. It turns out that if Mr. Grim had merely read the Washington Post's 1/21/09 story on this CBO report, he would have learned not only all the details he explains in his post, but he would have learned that these details were reported by the Republicans who announced the results of the study.

In other words, Grim's "expose'" is nothing but a slime attack on Republicans, who reported the matter accurately in the first place.

For shame, Mr. Grim.

[gigihendricks]

Well if the Republicans knew that the report was not accurate, then why were they using it as a reference in the Appropriation Committee hearings as a way to try and make the stimulus bill seem as if it was not going to produce any immediate results, again your Repubs were shot down by the Chairman that the CBO report was not accurate. Get all the facts first.

[philwynk]

Mr. Grim, who wrote this article, does not seem to know the difference between "there is no report" and "the report is unofficial, and only covers a portion of the program." Those are not the same thing, nor are they all that close to each other. The former is what Grim wrote near the top, and wants us to believe; the latter is the facts.

I linked here from a blog claiming "the CBO report was a phony." Apparently Grim's dissembling has worked its intended mischief. Well done, Master Sneak. Another lie launched successfully.

I see no reason in the article to doubt the basic point being made by the Republicans, namely that a great deal of government spending does not take effect immediately. The reasonable thing would be to perform a similar analysis of the most recent version of the bill, and compare the results to see whether things have improved. That's how an objective writer would have responded.

Instead, Grim launches a lie, and hundreds of readers around the blogosphere are deceived, and become part of a Democrat Echo Chamber. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the Democrats Control Their Dupes.

[Pharos]

Hiring takes effect immediately, surly even Republicans understand that.

[bibimimi]

lying cornered animals...they spit!

[Pharos]

One good thing about this story is that the MSM has taken another hit. At some point the media is going to have to return to real investigative journalism. Obama has surrounded himself with very smart people who know history and the facts. They are largely making fools of the media on the Sunday shows like Meet the Press.

[sandals]

again the republicans are trying to hoodwink the American people that they are behind them,not their own self interest. i think the American people are smarter than that, we know who got us into this mess and when they come out and say tax cuts is the answer hasn't that been the problem.
tax cuts to the top 2% hasn't help anybody but the top 2%.

[Shieldmaiden]

That is IT. I will never trust the GOP ever again. I didn't flat out trust them, but I thought at least for now they'd try really hard to work with democrats to do what was best for our nation. They are a bunch of crooks and liars. I don't know how Obama and his team can stand to work with them. They made this mess and now they're trying to stop him from fixing it. UGH. I am utterly d.isgusted with them right now.

[HighHorse]

The Present day republicans are Not the same type of people they were during President Lincolns time or even 50 years ago. This is a "hybrid" gruop of scam artists.
Checkout Monte Pythons "the meaning of life"
Checkout John Cusacks "War Inc."..If you dare to watch future America...If They get their way....
These movies put it right where the republicans Are and want America to Become....
We can't let them do it.....

[darker]

Republican LIARS let crooks run the show for years and
still are bizzily LYING? They are INCORRIGIBLE and
IMPOSSIBLE to REHABILITATE.

GOP = Damnable TRAITORS .