The Deficit Is Skyrocketing With No Signs of Stopping

U.S. budgets are exploding.

And Washington D.C. doesn’t seem to care.

The Sandhills Express reports that the Congressional Budget Office is putting deficit estimates at $960 billion this year before going above $1 trillion in 2020.

This is two years ahead of a projection made earlier this year.

The non-partisan agency is known for its periodical publications of what federal deficits, debt, revenues, and spending would be like within the current year and for the next decade under current laws dealing with taxation and spending.

In a new report, the CBO warns that annual deficits are slated to increase above the 50-year average.

It specifically noted the following:

Although both revenues and outlays grow faster than GDP over the next 10 years in CBO’s baseline projections, the gap between the two persists. As a result of those deficits, federal debt held by the public is projected to grow steadily, from 79 percent of GDP in 2019 to 95 percent in 2029 — its highest level since just after World War II.

Following a bipartisan spending agreement that was passed earlier this month, the CBO’s estimate of the 2019 fiscal year grew by an extra $63 billion. Additionally, the 10-year cumulative deficit grew by another $809 billion higher than an estimate published in May. This brings the deficit totals for the next 10 years to more than $12 trillion.

The CBO’s baseline projections for primary deficits — deficits which leave out net outlays for interest — during that period went up by a total of $1.9 trillion.

The nonpartisan organization pins the blame for $1.7 trillion of that increase on the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019. Similarly, $255 billion of that increase is attributed to the supplemental appropriations for disaster relief and border security in 2019.

CBO Director Phillip Swagel stated, “A range of developments, such as unexpected changes in international conditions, business confidence or productivity growth, could make economic outcomes differ significantly from our projections.”

He added, “Prospective changes in trade policies add to the projections’ uncertainty.”

According to CBO projections, GDP will grow by 2.3 percent in 2019 because of a strong labor market, low unemployment, and rising wages.

However, in 2020, the CBO predicts that economic growth will be below its long-term historical average, just rounding out at 1.8 of GDP during the next four years.

This has alarmed elected officials such as Senator Rand Paul.

Senator Paul tweeted, “I’ve said it once and I’ll say it as many times as I have to, we HAVE to cut spending.”