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Monday, March 03, 2008
CBO's Report on Bush's FY09 Budget Projections
Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a publication, Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget Request for 2009, that showed some key differences with the administration regarding budget deficit projections. If enacted, the report indicates, the president's budget would:
- produce growing deficits of $396 billion in 2008 and $342 billion in 2009, 2.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, of gross domestic product (GDP). By comparison, the deficit in 2007 totaled 1.2 percent of GDP
- result in reduced revenues of $2.1 trillion below CBO's baseline projections over the 2009—2018 period, largely because of proposed extensions of various provisions of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003
CBO's estimate of discretionary spending for 2009 is $41 billion below that of the Administration. About three-quarters of that difference stems from CBO's lower estimate of defense outlays. In addition, CBO's forecast of lower interest rates for 2009 results in net interest costs that are $43 billion less than the Administration's calculation.
But CBO also estimates that mandatory outlays will be $17 billion above the Administration's total for 2009, with about $10 billion of that amount stems from CBO's higher estimate of unemployment insurance benefits.
CBO's and the Administration's estimates of revenues under the President's policies are nearly identical for 2009.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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