Recent CBO reports

Testimony on Approaches to Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions       (pdf, 16pp/116kB), Nov. 1, 2007

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified before the House Budget Committee on reducing CO2 emissions. He advocated an incentive-based approach as more economically efficient than "command-and-control" policies. Two main incentives would be taxes (to regulate the price of emissions) or a cap and trade system (to regulate the quantity of emissions). Of the two, a "well-designed tax would yield higher net benefits."


The Long-Term Outlook for Health Care Spending
      (pdf, 35pp/552kB), November 2007

This study gives CBO's projections of health care spending over the next 75 years under current federal law. In view of rising health costs, CBO assumes that employers, households, and insurance firms, to avoid reducing consumption of other goods and services, will change their behavior, e.g., higher cost sharing, increased utilization management, reduced insurance coverage by employers, and greater scrutiny of new technologies.

See related FR post, "Medicare and nursing homes" (8/1/07)


Long-Term Unemployment (pdf, 34pp/476kB), Oct. 2007

Unemployment lasting more than six months has increased. This report examines such long-term unemployed workers during 2001-2003 - their characteristics, sources of income, and subsequent activities.

Finding workers

In a press release (pdf, 6p.) issued Sept. 25, the Dept. of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) announced Hawaii's unemployment rate for August at 2.6 percent, noting that it was the 32nd consecutive month that the unemployment rate remained below 3 percent.

The long-running low unemployment rate has created an extended labor shortage. In August the Workforce Development Council (WDC) of Hawaii, a private-sector led body that advises the Governor on workforce development, published a booklet to help employers expand their labor options "to include people less commonly considered." The publication provides information on hiring:

• Immigrants
• Older workers
• People with disabilities
• Welfare recipients
• People with criminal histories

The report also summarizes tax credits available when hiring from certain groups, and presents an array of flexible employment alternatives to retain employees, especially older workers: compressed work week, flextime, job reassignment, job redesign, part-time work, phased retirement, job sharing, telecommuting, sabbatical.

Solutions at Work...Finding Workers (pdf, 32pp/3.7MB)