The US Needs a Dose of Fiscal Responsibility
Recent projections show the scale of the problem. Solving it demands compromise.
Time for some give and take.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Joe Biden and Congress should take a break from their ritualized wrangling over the debt ceiling and look closely at last week’s projections from the Congressional Budget Office. These show that an already bad fiscal outlook is rapidly getting worse. The new forecast makes the standard assumption that the policies in place won’t change — thus proving beyond a doubt that they’ll have to.
Last May the CBO projected a budget deficit of just under $1 trillion for 2023. It now expects a deficit of $1.4 trillion, or 5.3% of gross domestic product. Deficits continue to trend higher, not just in dollar terms but as a proportion of national income. The cumulative deficit over the next 10 years is estimated at $19 trillion, $3 trillion more than before. The ratio of public debt to GDP rises to 98% this year, and to 118% by 2033. After that, the debt burden just carries on growing, year in year out.