Over the next 25 years, revenues are projected to fall well short of spending if current laws stay generally the same. Why is that the case?
CBO Blog
Director Doug Elmendorf testified on CBO's latest report on the long-term budget outlook. Also today, CBO issued "The 2014 Long-Term Budget Outlook in 26 Slides," which highlights the key points of the analysis.
If current laws remained generally unchanged, federal debt held by the public would exceed 100 percent of GDP by 2039 and would be on an upward path relative to the size of the economy—a trend that could not be sustained indefinitely.
CBO examined the implications of various approaches to altering the Social Security payroll tax rates as well as the taxable maximum (the maximum amount of earnings on which those payroll taxes are imposed).
The federal government ran a budget deficit of $366 billion for the first nine months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates—$144 billion less than the shortfall recorded over the same span last year.
The 2014 Long-Term Budget Outlook will be available on CBO’s website at 10:00 a.m. on the day of release.
Using the rising amounts of renewable transportation fuels required by the Renewable Fuel Standard will be difficult. CBO looks at how those requirements and alternatives would affect fuel and food prices and greenhouse gas emissions.
CBO finds that Ex-Im Bank’s credit programs would generate a budgetary cost using fair-value accounting—as opposed to savings under the current approach for measuring costs—because it more fully accounts for risk the government takes on.
Following a hearing on the budget and economic outlook, a Member of Congress asked whether federal investment or reductions in federal deficits and debt would be better for economic growth. Today's post provides that answer.
Peter Fontaine, CBO's Assistant Director for Budget Analysis, gave two presentations at a meeting of the Global Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices, which was sponsored by the World Bank Institute.