Peterson Statement on CBO Report: Ten Straight Years of Trillion-Dollar Deficits

NEW YORK — Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, commented today on the release of the Congressional Budget Office’s new Budget and Economic Outlook:

“Today’s CBO report shows ten straight years of trillion-dollar deficits. That’s a sad reflection of our nation’s poor fiscal health, and it adds insult to injury that we’re piling on all this debt in a growing economy.

“It’s important to recognize that it’s not just the large amount of deficit spending that’s a problem, it’s that we are borrowing for current consumption rather than investments. It would be one thing if we were running up deficits to fund investments in the future, but that’s not what’s happening. Investments are only a tiny fraction of the base budget and are not driving the deficit increases in this outlook.

“If a policy is important enough to enact, it should be important enough to pay for. Our leaders owe it to the next generation to set priorities, make tradeoffs and put our nation on a more sustainable path.”

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