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Commentary By Brian Riedl

America Is Ignoring Its Bulging Budget

Economics Tax & Budget

New CBO projections show a deteriorating fiscal situation, but no one seems to care.

The Congressional Budget Office released its first new federal-budget projections in nearly a year last month. If you missed it, you are not alone. Even as the CBO showed budget deficits soaring toward unsustainable levels, most of the print media offered respectful placement as a one-day story and then moved on. Cable news barely covered this confirmation of Washington’s rapidly deteriorating fiscal picture. The White House offered no press release promising to address the sea of red ink, nor did Republican or Democratic congressional leaders.

The indifference was not always this deep. During the Bush administration, budget deficits rising past $300 billion generated days of headlines, television coverage, and political debate. Even during the Trump administration, the regular uptick of annual budget deficits toward the $1 trillion threshold kept my phone ringing with reporter calls. Now, the CBO’s revelation of deficit projections approaching an unfathomable $3 trillion within a decade brought little sustained coverage.

Continue reading the entire piece here at National Review Online 

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Brian M. Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here

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