CBO to Super-Committee: Increase the Deficit!

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/163350/cbo-super-committee-increase-deficit


The head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office testified before the super-committee on deficit reduction on Tuesday, and while he outlined the basic math behind the nation’s long-term debt problem, he had a surprising message: don’t be afraid to make the deficit bigger over the next couple years, while the nation battles recession.

Douglas Elmendorf, the CBO director, said that given the massive Bush tax cuts, which severely throttled the federal government’s revenue stream, and given the large number of baby-boomers who will be on Medicare—combined with skyrocketing health costs—something has to give.

“Citizens will either have to pay more for their government, accept less in government services and benefits, or both,” he said.

But Elmendorf was also frank about the depths and danger of the current recession—and how it’s creating a much bigger deficit. He noted that the largest contributor to the government’s current red ink is a $5 trillion output gap, and that the costs of that gap are “borne unevenly, falling disproportionately on people who lose their jobs, who are displaced from their homes, or who own businesses that fail.”

[Tippy]

1. I am fed up....One tells us one thing, The next guy has a different view

But what I see is every dam Congress critter, is getting richer by the day. While ordinary Americans are going down the tubes.