Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Unsustainable debt

There goes the CBO using that phrase again.  WashPost: "The debt crisis deserves a serious response."
Put another way: Medicare and Social Security remain on track to crowd out other spending, slow economic growth and leave the government paying more in interest costs — 5 percent of GDP by 2038, compared with an average of 2 percent over the past 40 years. Just to keep pace, the government would have to tax more and more, or cut more and more, or both. The longer policymakers wait to address these issues, the harder it will be, not least because the interest will keep piling up.
By 2038, everybody in Washington will have succumbed to Keynesian mortality, so just keep kicking that can/bucket.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The CBO also has a dire warning about the upcoming train wreck:

"When estimates are compared on a year-by-year basis, the Congressional Budget Office's and the Joint Committee on Taxation’s estimate of the net budgetary impact of the ACA’s insurance coverage provisions has changed little since February 2013 and, indeed, has changed little since the legislation was being considered in March 2010... Taking the coverage provisions and other provisions together, CBO and JCT have estimated that the Affordable Care Act will reduce deficits over the next 10 years and in the subsequent decade."

That must be Bad CBO. The one with a swarthy mustache.

Eric said...

Yeah, I heard that song before.

You appear to have lifted this from this CBO press release: http://www.cbo.gov/publication/44176

But that report indicates that Obamacare will spend more than it takes in revenues to the tune of $1.36 trillion in the next decade. What's missing? Well you have to click on the link in the "Letter to the Speaker" to find this:

"The ACA also includes a number of other provisions related to health care that are estimated to reduce net federal outlays (primarily for Medicare)."

If you missed this theft from Medicare, you're not the only one. The media decided it's not really theft because...Obama.

Eric said...

Also, I like this CBO: "CBO: Delaying ObamaCare mandate would cut deficit by $35 billion"

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/320787-cbo-delaying-obamacare-mandate-would-cut-deficit-by-35-billion#ixzz2fx0OOHjt

Anonymous said...

But most likely, you don't like this CBO:
"What Is The Impact Of Repealing The ACA On The Federal Budget? ...we estimate that H.R. 6079 would reduce direct spending by $890 billion and reduce revenues by $1 trillion between 2013 and 2022, thus adding $109 billion to federal budget deficits over that period."

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43471