K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Federal Deficit & Debt

CNBC, via Barry Ritholtz:

For all of the hemming and hawing about spending cuts in Washington, the Congressional Budget Office's latest long-term budget forecast reflects two painful facts for Washington: How large the nation's problems remain, and how the GOP's 2010 surge into Washington has had only a limited impact in changing America's fiscal trajectory. The annual report, released on Tuesday by Capitol Hill's nonpartisan budget umpires, argues that if Congress's current policies continue - meaning that the Bush tax cuts are renewed at year's end and Medicare providers don't face drastic reductions in payments, among other issues - federal debt held by the public will reach 93 percent of gross-domestic product (GDP) by the year 2022. That's down about seven percentage points from CBO's 2011 forecast, which saw the nation's debt as a share of GDP rising to 100 percent by 2021. That's thanks in large part to the Budget Control Act of last summer - also known as the debt-ceiling deal - where Congress achieved more than $2 trillion in savings over the next decade through a combination of spending cuts and discretionary spending caps.

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Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 13, 2012 2:12 AM
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