Deficit

UPDATED July 19, 2010

HealthCare mandate – DOJ says it is a tax (they can’t defend constitutionality if it is not) but Pres. says it is not a tax. ~ The New York Times

Morning Bell: The Lawyers and Lobbyists Full Employment Act

Check out these budget charts from The Heritage Foundation

CBO chief says debt ‘unsustainable’

(Politico) Doug Elmendorf, best known for arbitrating the costs of various health care proposals, added his voice to a growing chorus of economic experts who predict dire consequences if political leaders don’t scale back spending, increase taxes or both — and soon…FULL STORY

What CMS (Medicare/Medicaid) and the CBO Really Say Health Care Reform Will Add to the Deficit. Washington Examiner Story

CBO: National Deficit to Hit Nearly $10 Trillion Over Upcoming Decade

WASHINGTON (AP)– A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.The agency says its future-year predictions of tax revenues are more pessimistic than the administration’s. That’s because CBO projects slightly slower economic growth than the White House….”While the president is intent on ramming through Congress a new trillion-dollar health-care entitlement, he appears far less concerned with addressing the looming crisis of entitlement spending already on the books,” said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Budget Committee. “Instead, he delegates this task to a ‘Fiscal Commission’ — which would not even report until after the next election.”…The new report predicts that debt held by investors, including China, would spike from $7.5 trillion at the end of last year to $20.3 trillion in 2020. That means interest payments would more than quadruple — from $209 billion this year, to $916 billion by the end of the decade….FULL STORY

Deficits higher than Obama forecast: CBO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s budget plans would rack up $9.8 trillion more debt by 2020, or $1.2 trillion more than the White House has forecast, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday…But working with staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, it made a preliminary estimate that Obama’s proposals would boost the budget deficit in fiscal 2010 to $1.5 trillion, or 10.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. “Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President’s proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter,” CBO said…FULL STORY