CBO Releases New 10-Year Federal Budget Outlook, Forecasting Deficit to Increase $13 Trillion

Published by Matt Fishman on

The United States Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published their newest report, presenting “projections of what federal deficits, debt, revenues, and spending… would be for the current year and for the following 10 years and beyond if existing laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged.” “CBO currently projects a federal deficit of $1.0 trillion in 2020;” as well as “deficits [which] average $1.3 trillion per year and total $13.1 trillion over the 2021–2030 period.” Correspondingly, CBO’s report projects “deficits rise from 4.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 to 5.4 percent in 2030. Other than a six-year period during and immediately after World War II, the deficit over the past century has not exceeded 4.0 percent for more than five consecutive years.”

CBO’s report noted how its forecast “is not intended to provide a forecast of future budgetary outcomes; rather, it is meant to provide a benchmark that policymakers can use to assess the potential effects of future policy decisions on federal spending and revenues and, therefore, on deficits and debt.”