Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report with updated long-term projections for Social Security. This report is a follow up to the last projections for Social Security released by CBO back in December, 2007. CBO Director Peter Orszag blogged last week on improvements made in this updated report:

The projections released today differ somewhat from earlier results because of newly available programmatic and economic data, updated assumptions about future demographic and economic trends, and improvements in CBO's models. For example, these projections assume that future immigrants will be younger and more numerous than was assumed in 2007. (This change was included in the 2008 Social Security trustees' report; CBO adopts the trustees' aggregate demographic assumptions.) As a result of this and other changes, CBO projects somewhat smaller future deficits than we did in our 2007 projections.

This report, while not focused on this issue, continues to show the crux of our long-term fiscal problem lies elsewhere - namely in rapidly rising health care services delivered through an inefficient system.

CBO: Updated Long-Term Projections for Social Security

Commentary and Analysis
EconomistMom: Useful Lessons from CBO's New Report on Social Security
EPI: Social Security — government report shows healthy program for decades
Andrew Biggs: Treatment of uncertainty in new CBO Social Security projections
Dean Baker: The Washington Post War On Social Security Continues

On Tuesday, August 19, the Coalition on Human Needs is once again hosting a webinar to help advocates and analysts prepare for the release of annual data from the Census Bureau about poverty, income, and health insurance in the U.S. The webinar will take place from 2:00 - 3:30 (EST) on the web, and feature Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Insitute, Douglas Hall, Acting Managing Director of Connecticut Voices for Children, Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, and will be moderated by Ellen Teller, Director of Government Affairs, Food Research and Action Center.

If you are not familiar with CHN's webinar or the annual data release of poverty information from Census, here's a bit of information about what you can expect if you sign up and participate. The webinar will help you:

* to find and understand national numbers and the findings for your state when they're released on August 26
* to see accurate trends over time; whether your state fares better or worse than the national average
* to compare the new data (from 2007) with what we know about the economic woes of 2008, and
* how to talk about the new findings to help build the growing movement for a national commitment to dramatically reduce U.S. poverty.

To sign up to participate and for more information, see CHN's webinar webpage.

The Bush administration announced yesterday that it will not enforce new requirements that would have made it more difficult for states to enroll children in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). USA Today reports that the administration will not be taking "compliance action" at this time on regulations that would have forced states to wait until children are uninsured for one year before being covered by SCHIP and also require states to enroll 95 percent of extremely low-income children in the state before expanding health care coverage to only somewhat low-income families:

The directive was aimed at 15 states that extended health insurance to children in families with incomes above 250% of the federal poverty level — $44,000 for a family of three.

Many governors and Democratic lawmakers criticized the administration's new guidelines as impossible to meet. They said the final result would be that more children would go without health coverage as states rein in their programs.

With the deadline fast approaching, the administration made clear that states were under no immediate threat of losing federal funding.

We commented at the end of July about how Democrats in Congress really dropped the ball in using the Congressional Review Act to impede the Bush administration's efforts to keep kids from having health care. Fortunately, at least for the time being, it looks like they are off the hook.

The OMB Watch Fiscal Policy Program is looking for an intern for the fall of 2008. Yup, that's right. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor at one of the most dynamic nonprofit watchdog groups in Washington, DC. We're looking for energetic undergraduate or graduate students who have excellent writing, critical thinking, and communications skills, and who are dedicated to public policy and government accountability (see current intern Josh at right for example).

The internship is unpaid, but you'll have the chance to gain first hand experiences and take on significant responsibilities related to a number of different aspects of policy analysis in DC. Plus, you'll get a chance to write for the BudgetBlog - what could be better?

Interested? Learn more about the position and how to apply.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their monthly budget review this morning. CBO Director Peter Orszag blogged on the release of the review on the CBO Director's Blog:

CBO estimates that for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2008, the federal budget deficit was about $371 billion—$213 billion more than the deficit recorded over the same period in 2007. While revenues were about 1 percent lower than in the same period last year, outlays over the same period have grown by almost 9 percent. CBO estimates that the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2008 will be in the vicinity of $400 billion, close to the amount we projected last March after accounting for proposed supplemental appropriations.

CBO estimates that a deficit of $102 billion was recorded for ythe month of July, about $65 billion more than recorded in July 2007; approximately $14 billion of that increase was due to rebate payments resulting from the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Receipts were about $5 billion lower than those in July 2007; without the rebates, receipts would have been up by 2 percent. Outlays in July were $61 billion higher than in the same month last year; about $21 billion of that difference was the result of calendar-related shifts in the timing of certain payments. Another major factor contributing to the increase was the $15 billion disbursed in July 2008 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to cover insured deposits at failed financial institutions; much of that cost should be recovered in the future as the FDIC liquidates the assets held by those institutions and collects higher insurance premiums.

CBO: Monthly Budget Review