HR 3582 (Price)
Pro-Growth Budgeting Act

The simple question now before us is whether it is better for Congress to have more information or less information when it is deliberating on matters that directly affect the economy of this nation.

 The answer should be self-evident, but apparently, some members of this house prefer blissful ignorance than having to go to the fuss and bother of actually assessing the full ramifications of the policies they are enacting.  (That explains a lot about some of the decisions they’ve made in recent years).

 The economy is a dynamic and fast-changing thing, responding rapidly to every tax and regulation imposed by government and every dollar that changes hands in markets.  

Yet, the rules under which the Congressional Budget Office operates severely constrain its ability to take this obvious reality into account in the information that it provides us. 

This measure doesn’t presume to tell the CBO how to do its job or what formulae to use in its analysis.  It doesn’t even change the outmoded static modeling it uses to score the fiscal impact of measures before us. 

All that it says is, “give us the complete picture.”  If a proposal is going to affect the economy significantly – for good or ill – tell us.  Tell us what you think and show us why you think so. 

Patrick Henry summed up this bill perfectly when he said, “For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”