A note about "scoring"
This game relies on a technique known as "budget scoring" to determine the relative costs and gains of the policy choices you make while playing it. A score is a value determined by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that estimates how much a given policy will impact the federal budget. It is only an estimate.
In this game, as in the Congress, we are using "static" scoring, which does not weigh the possible effects on individual or group behavior on the economy of any given policy change. For example, raising or lowering taxes or spending by $1 trillion ignores the economic impact of that decision and only scores that as a $1 trillion change to budget. As another example, CBO's scoring system assumes tax relief expires, but that spending programs will continue — leading some to claim that there is a built-in bias for higher taxes and more spending.
There is a debate about whether CBO's static scoring rules accurately reflect the real impact on spending and revenues. As an alternative to static scoring, some have suggested the CBO produce a parallel scoring system to better account for individual and institutional economic changes due to enacted policy. This is known as dynamic scoring which would assume that people will alter their behavior when you change tax rates.
So while the game is true to the rules that Congress abides by in making budget, tax and spending decisions, some would argue it is not a true reflection of the budgetary impacts the choices our policy makers have made.
