Typically, that referee -- the Congressional Budget Office -- analyzes legislation and scores how much it will cost or how much revenue it will raise.
Writes Greg Sargent at the Plum Line:
Senator Jeff Merkley is worried. He fears that it’s increasingly unlikely that the Congressional deficit “super-committee” will make a serious effort to incorporate job creation into its mission. Worse, he worries that some of its deficit-cutting proposals could actually do further harm to the economy.
Senator Merkley has an idea on what to do about this. He is calling on both parties to agree to submit every proposal offered by the supercommittee to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to be evaluated for the impact it will have — on jobs.
He doesn’t want the CBO to evaluate the proposals just for their budgetary impact. Rather, he wants the CBO to reach a conclusion on the impact the proposals will have on unemployment, whether positive, negative, or neutral.DailyKos wants you to sign a petition supporting Merkley. The petition demands the Super Committee adhere to two principles:
1. Independent review: The Super Committee's budget package should be given an independent review by the Congressional Budget Office to measure how many jobs it would create or eliminate.
2. Do no harm: Reject any budget package that would cost more jobs than it creates.You can sign it here.
