Scoring

The editors of the Wall Street Journal embroider the point I made yesterday a bit:

Republicans have twice captured new majorities in the House and Senate since 1994, only to achieve less than they hoped. If they want to do better the third time as they take charge next year, they will have to do better at running the institutions of Congress that the majority controls.

That means above all taking charge of the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office, which “score” the impact of tax and spending bills on the economy and federal fisc. CBO in particular is often portrayed by the media as the independent legislative scorekeeper that keeps the politicians honest. In fact it was created by Democratic majorities to counter GOP Presidents and support the Democratic agenda of expanding government.

CBO was created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, passed with a veto-proof congressional majority and enacted with the begrudging signature of a weakened Richard Nixon a month before he resigned. The law restricted the President’s power to “impound,” or decline to spend, money. The law, and later amendments to it, also gave the Joint Tax Committee expanded powers.

The rules according to which bills must be scored are more important than that they are scored and those rules make certain assumptions. Change the assumptions and the rules and the scores will be different, too.

The prospect of changing the rules by which bills are scored is already being vilified by pundits and members of the press. They should keep in mind that elections have consequences and that’s as true of midterm Congressional elections as it is of presidential ones.