Newt Gingrich: CBO “Is An Engine Of Socialism”

From Newt Gingrich’s August 9, 2012, appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal:

NEWT GINGRICH: This baseline thing is crazy. Basically what— Imagine your children convinced you that they had a baseline of getting a two-dollar-a-week increase in their allowance, and they deserve, therefore, in a normal month of four weeks, they deserve an eight-dollar increase to be even. And you say to them, “Well, you know, I haven’t gotten a pay raise, how about if I give you two dollars?” And they say, “Why are you cutting me six?” So you’re saying, “I’m giving you a two-dollar increase,” say “No you’re not, because my baseline is to get eight.” And I hope that I’m not– I’m doing this without a blackboard, so I hope all of our viewers can follow me. This is why I want a complete reform of the Congressional Budget Office, which is an engine of socialism and big government. The Congressional Budget Office has these models of what they call baseline budgeting which basically says if you don’t increase it by this amount, it’s a cut, even if it’s an increase. Now if you think about it, there’s no family in America, there’s no small business in America, that has a baseline budget like that. Normally if you spent a hundred dollars last you and you spend a hundred and five this year, it’s an increase. The Congressional Budget Office could score that as a fifteen-dollar cut if they have a baseline that’s bigger. So you put your finger on a very sophisticated point about why Washington is so hard to govern, and reforming the Congressional Budget Office is a significant step towards getting it governed, and if Republicans control the Senate in January, I hope that they will sit down with the House Republicans and insist on a director dedicated to fundamentally overhauling and changing the Congressional Budget Office.