Congressional Budget Office forecasts of government deficits and debt are supposed to be authoritative. But Congress forces the CBO to make unrealistic assumptions when issuing those estimates.
The latest assumptions include that the alternative minimum tax will not be adjusted annually for inflation and that discretionary spending unrelated to war will increase no faster than inflation.
Brian M. Riedl of the Heritage Foundation has stripped out these and other assumptions to come up with a more realistic look at the government’s spending and debt. Based on realistic assumptions:
- By 2020, half of all income tax revenues will go toward paying interest on a $23 trillion national debt.
- The national debt held by the public will surpass 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020.
- Federal spending per household, which has risen from $25,000 to nearly $30,000 during the past three years, will top $38,000 by 2020. The national debt per household, which was $52,000 before the recession, will approach $150,000 by 2020.
- Over eight years under President Obama, budget deficits will total $10 trillion. That is triple the $3.3 trillion in deficits accumulated by President Bush. The public debt — $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 — will triple to $23.5 trillion by 2020.
- The expected additional costs of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs will push the federal public debt to more than 300 percent of GDP by 2050 and above 800 percent of GDP by 2080.
Obama blames Bush for handing him a growing deficit. Never mind that the deficit is now nearly three times what it was under Bush. Meanwhile, Obama is lecturing European countries, which are cutting government spending, that they should reverse course and increase spending.
American consumers know better. Even as Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress spend like drunken sailors, Americans have cut back on their personal debt.
“I think the biggest threat we have to our national security is our debt,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said.
Because of Obama and the Democrats, America faces a financial crisis as devastating as a terrorist attack.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.
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