Later this week, CBO will be releasing its new Long-Term Budget Outlook. Perhaps the single most important variable affecting the nation's long-term fiscal outlook is the rate at which health care costs will grow in the future. Over the past 30 years, total national spending on health care has more than doubled as a share of GDP. According to the projections we released last month in our Long-Term Outlook for Health Care Spending, that share will double again by 2035, claiming more than 30 percent of GDP.
December 2007
CBO released its Monthly Budget Review today. During the first two months of fiscal year 2008, the budget deficit was $157 billion, according to our estimates -- $35 billion higher than the same period last year.
CBO released a new report this morning on the impact of unauthorized immigrants on state and local government budgets. Most analyses have found that the fiscal impact of immigrants as a whole (both legal and unauthorized, and including all levels of government) is slightly positive -- the tax revenues generated by immigrants exceed the cost of the government services they use.
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I am testifying before the House Budget Committee this morning on economic conditions and the budget. CBO will not be releasing an updated macroeconomic forecast until January, when we release our next Economic and Budget Outlook, so the testimony doesn't have any specific projections for the macroeconomic outlook.