According to the country’s budget monitor, the US is on track to surpass past economic projections and add a stunning $19 trillion to the national debt in the next ten years.
The Congressional Budget Office warned that the nation’s economic direction needs to be altered in some way, whether it be through tax increases or spending reductions, in a study released on Wednesday.
In a statement released with the report, CBO Director Phillip Swagel stated that “over the long term, our forecasts suggest that changes in fiscal policy must be made to manage the rising costs of interest and minimise other unfavourable implications of high and rising debt.”
According to the CBO, the national debt will reach previously unheard-of levels in ten years relative to the size of the economy. According to the CBO, public debt is anticipated to reach its highest-ever level of 118% of GDP by 2033.
By 2033, the national debt will have increased by $3 trillion, according to the CBO’s new predictions.
According to the analysis, there would be a $1.4 trillion budget imbalance between government expenditure and tax receipts in 2023.
The CBO forecasts that deficits will average $2 trillion year over the following ten years, with tax collections continuing to fall short of the escalating expenses of entitlement programmes like Social Security and Medicare.
However, the nonpartisan budget organisation projects that, after accounting for inflation, the US economy would barely expand in 2023 and that joblessness will rise, with the unemployment rate above 5% for the first time since 2021.
The Federal Reserve’s efforts to control inflation by hiking interest rates are blamed by the CBO for the anticipated slowdown in growth.
The latest estimate would intensify the argument between President Biden and Republicans on Capitol Hill over taxes, spending, and lifting the nation’s debt ceiling.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a member of the GOP, has stated that he will not vote to extend the debt ceiling until the 80-year-old president agrees to spending reductions. The debt ceiling restricts the amount of money the government may borrow to meet its obligations.
The fiscal track is unsustainable, according to the CBO’s revised forecasts, Swagel told reporters on Wednesday. He said that without reforms to Social Security and Medicare, it will be extremely impossible to shift the country’s budgetary trajectory and achieve budget parity in 10 years.
Swagel remarked, “It’s mathematically conceivable, but it’s very, very tough.”
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