eagle1462010
Diamond Member
- May 17, 2013
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- #221
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-114hrpt47/pdf/CRPT-114hrpt47.pdf
Interest payments on the debt (the ‘‘legacy cost’’ of deficit spending) will sum to a staggering $5.6 trillion over the next decade according to Congressional Budget Office [CBO]. These payments threaten to overwhelm other spending priorities in the budget. In a 2012 study entitled ‘‘The Untold Story of America’s Debt,’’ Deloitte LLP, a tax, audit and consulting firm, discussed the ways in which debt will hamper U.S. competitiveness in the years ahead. Deloitte argues that ‘‘a great variety of meaningful investments will almost certainly be left undone simply because interest payments will push them out of the budget. This is the silent cost of prior debts that, unless explicitly recognized, crucially leads policymakers to underestimate the effect that prior deficits have already had on this decades planned expenditures.’’ 4 Critics sometimes dismiss the pursuit of balanced budgets, claiming lawmakers are unwilling or unable to make the ‘‘tough choices’’ needed to achieve them. On the other hand, without a sound fiscal standard, nothing will compel Congress to pursue the necessary policy choices. Some have tried to substitute intellectually sophisticated measures, such as the amounts of deficits or debt as a share of the economy—yet there is no consensus on what the acceptable upper limits might be. The abandonment of the balanced budget norm has left Washington without a guiding standard by which to measure the status of its fiscal policy. Nothing has replaced it. As a result, fiscal policy is adrift. Today, the only guideline is the relativistic pay-as-you-go concept, which merely ratifies existing deficits as the measure of budgetary rectitude—no matter how large those deficits might be. Thus, the proponents of the Affordable Care Act could boast the measure was fiscally ‘‘responsible’’ because it did not increase deficits—while it recklessly added trillions of dollars to government spending.
Newest CBO warning to get our debt in order..........Warnings ignored again and again and again.
Interest payments on the debt (the ‘‘legacy cost’’ of deficit spending) will sum to a staggering $5.6 trillion over the next decade according to Congressional Budget Office [CBO]. These payments threaten to overwhelm other spending priorities in the budget. In a 2012 study entitled ‘‘The Untold Story of America’s Debt,’’ Deloitte LLP, a tax, audit and consulting firm, discussed the ways in which debt will hamper U.S. competitiveness in the years ahead. Deloitte argues that ‘‘a great variety of meaningful investments will almost certainly be left undone simply because interest payments will push them out of the budget. This is the silent cost of prior debts that, unless explicitly recognized, crucially leads policymakers to underestimate the effect that prior deficits have already had on this decades planned expenditures.’’ 4 Critics sometimes dismiss the pursuit of balanced budgets, claiming lawmakers are unwilling or unable to make the ‘‘tough choices’’ needed to achieve them. On the other hand, without a sound fiscal standard, nothing will compel Congress to pursue the necessary policy choices. Some have tried to substitute intellectually sophisticated measures, such as the amounts of deficits or debt as a share of the economy—yet there is no consensus on what the acceptable upper limits might be. The abandonment of the balanced budget norm has left Washington without a guiding standard by which to measure the status of its fiscal policy. Nothing has replaced it. As a result, fiscal policy is adrift. Today, the only guideline is the relativistic pay-as-you-go concept, which merely ratifies existing deficits as the measure of budgetary rectitude—no matter how large those deficits might be. Thus, the proponents of the Affordable Care Act could boast the measure was fiscally ‘‘responsible’’ because it did not increase deficits—while it recklessly added trillions of dollars to government spending.
Newest CBO warning to get our debt in order..........Warnings ignored again and again and again.
