The big story today is that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office updated their baseline estimate for the federal budget’s ten-year outlook. Our analysis, based on their most recent data, shows that current
policy trends could add $10.295 trillion to the national debt from
2010-2019. Note that the current national debt is $10.6 trillion, so
this would double that in just 10 years!
The big story today is that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office updated their baseline estimate for the federal budget’s ten-year outlook. Our analysis, based on their most recent data, shows that current
policy trends could add $10.295 trillion to the national debt from
2010-2019. Note that the current national debt is $10.6 trillion, so
this would double that in just 10 years!
The other big news from the CBO baseline release today is that they
project this year’s budget deficit (Fiscal Year 2009) will be $1.186
trillion (more than double the prior single year dollar record) or 8.3%
of GDP–a post World War II high.
For over a decade, the Concord Coalition has taken CBO’s estimates and made changes in order to produce a more "plausible" estimate based on current policy trends. These baselines are important tools on which to evaluate how proposed legislation effects the budget. Our press release today about the new CBO report and our analysis can be found here. For more information on Concord’s plausible baseline click here.
Late Update:
For Diane Lim Roger’s economistmom.com take on the CBO report click here.
–Joshua Gordon
