$1 Trillion Deficits To Return, National Debt To Rise, Projects CBO
As the House prepares to vote this week on a largely symbolic balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, its own budget watchdog delivered a stark reality check Monday that forecasts the return of $1 trillion-plus annual deficits and a ballooning public debt that will approach $29 trillion by the end of the next decade.
"If current laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged, the federal budget deficit would grow substantially over the next few years," the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office wrote in its
10-year budget forecast, "with accumulating deficits driving debt held by the public to nearly 100 percent of GDP by 2028."
The CBO regularly offers economic forecasts, but the latest report is the first since the GOP enacted a $1.5 trillion tax cut, as well as a two-year spending blueprint that increases funding for the Pentagon and domestic programs. A $1.3 trillion 2018 spending bill was approved last month with bipartisan support as a result of that deal.
The CBO today forecasts the budget deficit — the amount Congress spends in excess of what it takes in from tax revenues — for 2018 will be $804 billion, will once again cross the $1 trillion threshold starting in 2020 and will continue to climb through 2028 with no end in sight.
