Nobody is Talking About the Deficit

Excerpt from Raymond James Economist Dr. Scott Brown's latest economic commentary:

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released its latest projections of the federal budget deficit. The CBO is now looking for a 2.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. The CBO’s outlook assumes current law (the Bush tax cuts sunset as scheduled at the end of 2010), but does not include additional costs from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. CBO Director Peter Orszag said that “the nation is on an unsustainable long-term fiscal course.” Neither of the two presidential candidates is proposing that we get the federal budget deficit back on track.

We’ve come a long way in seven and a half years. Projections of growing budget surpluses were not worth the paper they were printed on, but they were used to justify tax cuts. Those tax cuts may have helped the economy grow faster than it would have otherwise, but it also left the U.S. with a lot more debt.

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The federal debt is now approaching $9.7 trillion, $4 trillion higher than in early 2001, and is now back near its peak as a percentage of GDP.

Comments

[Steven Hansen:]

it is clear a democratic president and republican congress - along with a few cigars were the best thing fiscally for America. Oh, how i with for the good ole days.

2008 Sep 19 03:02 AM

[fran:]

nobody talks, 'cause nobody's got any solutions. and nobody wants to admit the situation gets horribly worse with time--even excluding this week's total actions[catastrophy???...

ACTION PLAN-- buy a working farm with lotsa timber. maybe Amish country. check GP MD, VET MD coverage to protect family and livestock.

SIGNED: GERRY MANDER

2008 Sep 20 08:51 PM