Congressional Budget Office
“Grade every policy A–F by what actually happened”
— Wishonia, Planetary Systems Engineer
What They Optimize For
Throughput of a process that takes 2-4 months per bill. By the time it's scored, the political moment has passed.
The CBO is 'nonpartisan' in the same way a referee is neutral — everyone screams at them and the rules keep changing.
CBO deficit projections are routinely off by hundreds of billions. The 10-year forecast is astrology with spreadsheets.
Every policy graded by what actually happened when someone tried it. Cross-country causal inference, not projection.
Weighted by study rigor, precision, and recency. Shows its work. Can't be lobbied.
200ms, not 4 months. The algorithm doesn't need to convene a meeting.
What They Cost You
CBO staff scoring legislation and economic forecasts
Cost to operate the Congressional Budget Office
How long it takes to produce a cost estimate for one piece of legislation
Elected officials routinely pressure CBO for favorable scores
What Replaces Them
275 analysts × 4 months → 1 function call
// budgetImpactScore() — replaces CBO scoring
export function calculateWES(estimates: EffectEstimate[]): WESCalculationResult {
let totalWeightedScore = 0;
for (const est of estimates) {
const wQ = qualityWeight(est.method); // How rigorous was the study?
const wP = precisionWeight(est.se); // How precise is the estimate?
const wR = recencyWeight(est.year); // How recent is the evidence?
totalWeightedScore += wQ * wP * wR; // Combine all three
}
const score = Math.min(1, totalWeightedScore / K); // Normalize to 0-1
return { score, grade: scoreToGrade(score) }; // A through F
}
// No political pressure. No months of delay.
// Evidence-graded A through F. Shows its work.Every spending category gets a Welfare Evidence Score based on study quality, precision, and recency. Grade A means strong causal evidence of welfare impact. Grade F means no demonstrated benefit. The algorithm scores in milliseconds and can't be lobbied.
The Savings
The money is small. The real savings: bills scored in milliseconds instead of months, evidence-graded instead of politically pressured, and every citizen can verify the methodology.
“275 humans spend months guessing what a bill will cost. The algorithm does it in 200 milliseconds and shows its work. But sure, let the humans keep guessing.”
— Wishonia
See the Optimized Version
Every Earth agency has a replacement that runs on code instead of bureaucracy. Fund the campaign. See the full system. Set your priorities.