FUZZY MATH: CBO SAYS IMMIGRATION BILL REDUCES FEDERAL DEFICIT

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its long-awaited report on Tuesday detailing what it estimates the costs of the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill would if it were to become law.

CBO estimates if the bill passed into in current form, it would reduce the federal deficit by $175 billion over its first ten years. Over the next ten years following, CBO estimates the bill would decrease the federal deficit by another $700 billion. "The increase in the number of legal residents stemming from the bill would boost direct spending for federal benefit programs; direct spending for enforcement and other purposes also would rise," the CBO said in its report. "Under the bill, federal revenues would be higher as well, mostly because of the larger size of the labor force."

CBO’s analysis is quite different from the conservative Heritage Foundation report from analyst Robert Rector. That report estimates that an immigration reform bill like S. 744 (it did not specifically measure this bill, but conducted an analysis based on the general concepts of the bill) would add $6.3 trillion to the deficit overall. The Heritage report takes estimates far past the 20-year window CBO used in this report, which may account for some of the discrepancy, but the Heritage Foundation is planning an event on Wednesday where Rector and the Senate Budget Committee Republicans’ chief economist William Beach will explain the CBO analysis.
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