By the Editors November 12, 2012
The ballooning US deficit, which now stands at about $1.1 trillion, has driven Congress to the brink of cooperation. House Republicans have said they are ready to work with the President on a budget for next year that would avert a tumble over the fiscal cliff and ward off a recession.
Now, the question for the legislature and the executive branch is not whether to reduce deficit but where and by how much.
The Congressional Budget Office looked at three different scenarios for trimming the deficit over the next eight years and projected three different outcomes. Here’s what they found:
• Cutting the deficit by $1 trillion by 2020 would leave the budget more or less balanced. It would also put the country on track to trim the national debt relative to its gross domestic product.
• Cutting the deficit by $750 billion by 2020 would leave the nation with smaller deficits than the existing system and put the country in a position to pay down its debt, albeit over a significantly longer period.
• Cutting the deficit by $500 billion by 2020 would hold the national debt just above its current level, relative to GDP.
Read the CBO’s full report here.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2012 at 7:19 am. It is filed under Tools & Resources and tagged with CBO, congress, debt, debt-to-GDP, fiscal cliff, spending. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Comments are closed.
