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0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8fcf0001Listen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher Note: we are no longer posting Civics 101 episodes to this site. Click here to visit the website for the podcast.Why does the U.S. have an Electoral College? How do congressional investigations work? What does the minority whip actually do? Civics 101 is the podcast refresher course on the basics of how our government works.Civics 101 is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting_

Episode 21: The Congressional Budget Office

When Republicans first submitted their alternative to the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle anxiously awaited the release of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis—or "score"—for the bill. Determining the long and short-term cost for a specific piece of legislation is a complicated task, so we asked the founding director of the CBO, Alice Rivlin, to help explain the history of the office and how it manages to predict the financial outcome of a bill when there are so many moving parts. 

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