OMB Watch released a statement yesterday afternoon harshly criticizing the Democratically control Congress and the president for abandoning fiscal responsibility in the final hours of 2007 after they entire year was spent adhering to or attempting to adhere to righting our nation's fiscal course. From the statement: Adding insult to a year of fiscal policy injuries, Congress has abandoned fiscal responsibility by waiving pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules in order to pass a one-year patch to the alternative minimum tax (AMT) without offsets. This tax cut adds another $50 billion to an already expanding deficit next year, and will give fewer options for our children and grandchildren to seek solutions to the problems of tomorrow. While I expect as much from President Bush, this is a huge disappointment from the new Democratic majority in Congress whose number one promise was to uphold pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules. So much for promises: This vote is particularly disappointing as Democrats have gone to great lengths this year to comply with PAYGO rules, particularly on spending. From student loan reforms to expansions of the State Children's Health Insurance Program and Food Stamps, Democrats have negotiated the turbulent fiscal waters of the federal budget responsibly, diligently, even courageously. That is why at this point, after all that work and sacrifice, the compromises and the concessions needed to construct balanced solutions to the AMT problem, it is unacceptable for them to abandon their stated principles of fiscal responsibility because they fear Americans will not accept paying up front for the services and benefits the country demands. As the statement makes clear, there is plenty of blame to go around in Washington for this policy failure. What an awful way to end 2007.

CBO released its long-term budget outlook yesterday. Here's CBO Director Peter Orszag's testimony and the report itself. Key excerpt:

OMB has launched their website that will comply with the 2006 Coburn-Obama Federal Funding, Accountability, and Transparency Act (Transparency Act) today. You can visit it at www.usaspending.gov. OMB really needs to be commended for this site, for launching it two weeks before required under the legislation, and for their commitment to transparency. For those of you who haven't been to the BudgetBlog before or have, but are still sleepy this morning, you might not notice that the government's website looks an awful lot like FedSpending.org, the site we launched in October, 2006. Well, that's because it basically is FedSpending.org, with a few design changes. As the Washington Post reported this morning, OMB Watch licensed FedSpending.org to OMB for use in compliance with the law (btw, the article is a great insight into the collaboration we've had with OMB over the past year). We will continue to operate FedSpending.org and add more advanced features that make the site easier to use and the data easier to understand. And we hope with a solid foundation, OMB will be able to make timely and eventually more accurate data available to the public through USASpending.gov. Currently, there are difference between the sites. For instance, OMB will have more timely data as they plan to update the site every two weeks with new data (we currently update data twice a year). In addition, the government site does not have features and upgrades added to FedSpending.org in our last version release, including a mapping feature on all searches, creation of a streamlined and powerful SuperSearch for all advanced searching needs, and increased flexibility in getting data more quickly through expandable summary views. I have been continually surprised and proud of the success of our endevor to make Federal spending information more available and understandable to the public through FedSpending.org. For it to now be the model for the government's efforts to do the same is feels even better.

CBO Director Peter Orszag editorializes in the Wall Street Journal today on long-term budget problems. It's a great piece. Key excerpts: The bottom line is that while we need to address the effects of the coming retirement of the baby boomers and the projected imbalance in Social Security, we have to pay even more attention to the health-care costs that exert the dominant influence on our fiscal future. Policy makers will face both challenges and opportunities in trying to reduce these costs...