Long Term US Budget Forecast

The Congressional Budget Office issued its report on the long term forecast of the US budget. It includes a projection of US debt as a percent of GDP.

Under current laws and policies, rapidly rising health care costs and an aging population will sharply increase federal spending for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Unless increases in revenues kept pace with escalating spending, or spending growth was sharply reduced, soaring federal debt would weigh heavily on economic output and incomes.

CBO predicts US government debt could reach almost 200 percent of GDP by 2035. That ratio is substantially higher than the highest amount of debt during WWI, WWII or the Great Depression of the 1930s.