CBO 10-year Outlook: Report Shows Real Damage Done to Fiscal Outlook

NEW YORK — Michael A. Peterson, President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, commented today on the release of the April 2018 Budget and Economic Outlook from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO):

“Today’s CBO report confirms that major damage was done to our fiscal outlook in just the past few months. This is the first forecast to take into account the recent tax and spending legislation, and it’s clear that lawmakers have added significantly more debt on top of an already unsustainable trajectory.

“The deficit will reach $1 trillion again next year and grow as far as the eye can see. Interest on the debt is the fastest growing category of the budget and will total nearly $7 trillion over the next decade. And our debt will rise to 96% of GDP in ten years, the highest level since the end of World War II.

“This high and rising debt matters because it harms our economy, by crowding out public and private investment, reducing our fiscal flexibility, and lowering confidence and certainty. Now, during a time of low unemployment and economic expansion, we should be taking reasonable steps to put our debt on a sustainable path – but instead we are piling up trillions of bills that will harm the next generation’s economic prospects and prosperity.”

Read our full analysis of CBO’s "The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028.”