The CBO: Obscuring the Problem

The Washington Post is running an editorial today clarifying some of the CBO's recently released deficit numbers. Due, they say, to legal requirements on their projections, the CBO ignores significant costs and calculates the Social Security surplus as part of revenues. The actual numbers for the next 10 years are far more grim. The deficit is likely to reach $1 trillion per year by 2014, and the increase on the US national debt (the present level of which the CBO also grossly misrepresents) would increase multiple times what the CBO has estimated. They also point out that both Bush and the Democratic candidates don't appear poised to do much about this situation. Great editorial, wish people were paying attention.