About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Letter from Peter R. Orszag, Director to Patrick machinery regarding CBO's contrasting cost estimates for S. 625 and H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act 1 (July 2008)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo10349 and id is 1 raw text is: CONGRESSIONAL BUDGT OFFICE Peter R. Orszag, C U-.S. Congress as4hington, DC 20515 July 9, 2008 Honorable Patrick T. McHenry U.S. House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman: This letter responds to your May 21 inquiry concerning CBO's contrasting cost estimates for S. 625 and H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. You note that the two bills, otherwise very similar, are scored differently with respect to the estimate of fees that must be collected to defray the net loss to the Treasury caused by the bill's effects on receipts from income and payroll taxes. You point out that this difference springs from the House bill's direction to classify the new fees imposed on tobacco producers and importers as offsetting receipts instead of revenues. The differences in how the budget effects are scored reflect the language in H.R. 1108 specifying how to classify governmental collections. That difference reflects longstanding Congressional budget scoring procedures but does not reflect a real underlying difference in the effect of the two bills on the budget; in reality, for fees set at the same levels, the net effects on the government's receipts would be the same, regardless of how they are recorded in the budget. CBO expects that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act would affect federal collections through three channels. First, the reduction in tobacco consumption that is the bill's goal would reduce collections from tobacco excise taxes. Second, the imposition of an assessment on tobacco producers and importers would raise revenue to compensate for the loss of those excise tax receipts and to cover the costs of the FDA's new regulation of the industry. And third, the imposition of that assessment would lower taxable income, leading to a loss of payroll and corporate and individual income taxes.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most