Director’s Desk
Kenneth Gold | January 20, 2016
Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its revised update that projects the federal deficit increasing this year to $544 billion, $130 billion higher than its August estimate, and $105 billion more than last year’s deficit. It will equal 2 cialis 20mg fta 4.9% of GDP, and will be the first time the annual deficit increases relative to the size of the economy since the record FY09 deficit that equaled nearly 10% of GDP. CBO’s 2016-2025 ten-year deficit projection also increases, from $7 trillion to $8.5 trillion, due to higher spending but also to lower revenues as a result of the extension of tax provisions by the August tax bill.
The new deficit projections will make it even more difficult for the budget committees to write FY17 budget resolutions that promise to eliminate deficits in ten years, as the last several Republican plans have pledged. Immediately following the release of the CBO numbers, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations, Nita Lowey (D-NY), wrote a letter to House Budget Committee Chair Tom Price (R-GA) urging him to resist cutting discretionary spending below the levels in the recent bipartisan budget deal. Despite the two-year discretionary numbers agreed to only three months ago, there’s little doubt that the new CBO numbers will provide fiscal hawks renewed impetus in their efforts to further slash spending.
We’ll be looking at these and other issues of importance to federal departments and agencies in our upcoming Congressional Update on Capitol Hill on February 18.
Categories: Director's Desk, Updates