by Frank James
The Congressional Budget Office's new budget outlook for the next ten years is out today and foresees a record deficit of $1.2 trillion dollars for the current fiscal year which ends Oct. 31.
An excerpt:
CBO projects that the deficit this year will total $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP. Enactment of an economic stimulus package would add to that deficit. In CBO's baseline, the deficit for 2010 falls to 4.9 percent of GDP, still high by historical standards.
CBO expects federal revenues to decline by $166 billion, or 6.6 percent, from the amount in 2008. The combination of the recession and sharp drops in the value of assets--most significantly in publicly traded stock--is expected to lead to sizable declines in receipts, especially from individual and corporate income taxes.
The CBO also expects the present recession to end in the calendar year's second half, making it the longest recession since the Great Depression.
CBO anticipates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, will last until the second half of 2009, making it the longest recession since World War II. (The longest such recessions otherwise, the 1973-1974 and 1981-1982 recessions, both lasted 16 months. If the current recession were to continue beyond midyear, it would last at least 19 months.) It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period: By CBO's estimates, economic output over the next two years will average 6.8 percent below its potential--that is, the level of output that would be produced if the economy's resources were fully employed (see Figure 1). This recession, however, may not result in the highest unemployment rate. That rate, in CBO's forecast, rises to 9.2 percent by early 2010 (up from a low of 4.4 percent at the end of 2006) but is still below the 10.8 percent rate seen
near the end of the 1981-1982 recession.
Comments
Fact: When Bill Clinton left office we had a budget surplus.
Under the illegitimate administration of George Bush and his failed policies and accomplishments we have record deficits, millions of people have lost their jobs, tens of millions are without any sort of health care, foreclosures and bankruptcies are at an all time high, gas prices were nearly $5 a gallon last summer, the dollar value of our bank accounts and 401k's have decreased substantially. The list goes on and on and on. That's what you call Republican leadership.
Posted by: Doug R. | January 7, 2009 11:16 AM
All this from eight years of the MBA president Bush. A Bush serves himself at the detriment of the nation. In the most compassionate conservative way I do hope karma is a %itch.
Posted by: Vivian | January 7, 2009 11:29 AM
> Fact: When Bill Clinton left office we had a budget surplus.
Fact. You're full of it. Stop parroting inaccurate *crap*, just because you're too dumb and clueless to actually look elsewhere besides Nightline.
The Myth of The Clinton Budget Surplus:
http://www.craigsteiner.us/articles/16
That uses the US Treasury's own numbers, and links to the source files on government sites. It also explains the verbal chicanery used to contort the actual numbers into a mythical surplus.
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No, that doesn't defend the stupidity of the Democrat(6 years)/GOP(2 years) in CONGRESS under Bush spending proflgately, nor does it defend Bush's failure to VETO crap he certainly should have.
But this mess is 65% crap from the dems, 20% GOP failures, 10% greedy/stupid bankers, and 5% greedy/stupid home buyers.
And, given that it took **3 years** under Bush to spend a trillion dollars We Don't Have, I think it's rather rich to be pointing fingers when it's taken only **3 weeks** under Obama to match and exceed that dubious watermark.
Posted by: O Bloody Hell | February 27, 2009 1:08 AM
"And, given that it took **3 years** under Bush to spend a trillion dollars We Don't Have, I think it's rather rich to be pointing fingers when it's taken only **3 weeks** under Obama to match and exceed that dubious watermark."
your not evening reading the sources your site. Bush Increased the National Deficit by 5 Trillion dollars from 2001 to 2008. Before Bush we had a national debt of 5 trillion, after Bush we had a national debt approaching 11 trillion. Now why did this happen? Can you say Iraq? We borrowed money from saudi arabia and china to fund an illegitimate war, now are national interest payments are approaching 412 billion a year, the third highest costing item on the federal book and a crumbling economy. Now Obama wants to do the same thing (borrow from china, etc) to invest in America, to rebuild it, so we remain the worlds most powerful country but this is bad according to you repugs.
Your federal deficift argument is a straw man. the real problem is the national debt but we cant do anything about that until the country can function again.
Posted by: this is rich | March 1, 2009 7:20 PM