With Republicans taking over control of the Senate in January, legislative leadership is considering who to appoint as director of the Congressional Budget Office. At the center of the debate is the practice of dynamic scoring, which means legislative analysis would account for how the economy is altered by changes in the law.

Simply put, changes in the law make people act differently. Eliminating special interest tax breaks will actually improve the economy because businesses will be more productive and focus less on lobbying. But when government analysts estimate the revenue effects of legislation, they don’t analyze effects on the overall economy.