Saying the Congressional Budget Office is "utterly unable" to produce accurate forecasts, House Republican leaders Tuesday threatened to cut the office's funding if it does not "address these shortcomings" now.
"We are deeply concerned about the increasing evidence that the [CBO] is utterly unable to predict consistent and accurate future revenues, or even the fiscal implications of changes in budget policy," House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and the other top Republican leaders said in a letter to Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman James Walsh, R-N.Y.
The leaders told Walsh that CBO projections have been "consistently wrong--and wrong by a country mile," contending that between May 1996 and May 1998, the budget office's estimates changed by $275 billion.
"These forecasts are the foundation upon which Congress crafts legislation," the leaders said. "Congress should not be put in a position of relying upon incorrect information. The CBO must address this problem. If it does not, I believe we must review the structure and funding for the CBO in this appropriations cycle."
CBO Director June O'Neill told CongressDaily that the letter caught her by surprise. "Of course it worries me," O'Neill said. "We serve Congress. Obviously, it's discouraging if they don't trust our results."
She said no one produces "perfect forecasts," adding that she met with Gingrich last week and the speaker spoke with the budget office's outside panel of economists this week.
"Since I thought we had started a dialogue, I was taken by surprise," she said.
House Budget ranking member John Spratt, D- S.C., was blunt in his criticism. "I find [the letter] an outrageous threat to the independence" of the CBO, he said in an interview. "What we want is their honest, rigorous, independent advice."
He also said O'Neill was the handpicked choice of House GOP leaders. "Since she won't whistle their tune, they're repudiating her," he declared.
One Democratic source added that the 1995 government shutdown centered on a dispute over whether the White House would use the CBO's estimates. "These hypocrites shut the government down three times demanding that we follow CBO opinions," the source charged.
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