Tuesday, August 25, 2009

White House Sharply Increases Projections of Future Deficits

slide15The federal deficit will soar to nearly $1.6 trillion this year, miring the nation in the deepest pool of red ink since the end of World War II, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the White House reported Tuesday. - washpost

The White House and the Congressional Budget Office released new estimates on Tuesday of the scope of federal budget deficits and the health of the U.S. economy.The Obama administration raised its projection for the budget deficit between 2010 and 2019 to a total of about $9 trillion, while the nonpartisan CBO, Congress' budget analyst, lowered its estimate for the 10-year budget deficit to $7.14 trillion.

... Already mired in controversy, President Barack Obama's drive for sweeping healthcare reform could take yet another hit. Opponents say that with the U.S. economy in recession and budget deficits at record levels, now is not the time for Washington to take on another expensive program.The coming economic reports are "more likely to have an effect on preventing things from happening than causing things to happen," said Robert Bixby, executive director of Concord Coalition, the nonpartisan group dedicated to eliminating federal budget deficits.Obama and many of his fellow Democrats in Congress stress that any healthcare reform bill that is enacted will have to pay for itself. But some critics say reforms that reduce the cost of the Medicare program for the elderly or raise taxes on the wealthy, for example, should go toward deficit-reduction and not for expanding the availability of health insurance.

via Reuters

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