OMB Finds Deficit Shrinking But Poised To Rise Without Entitlement Fixes
The White House budget office expects the deficit to go down to $496 billion in 2018 before heading to $593 billion in 2022.
The New York Times: Projections Show U.S. Budget Deficit Will Shrink
The federal budget deficit will fall to $759 billion for the fiscal year that ends this September, a $214 billion improvement from the projection made in March, as spending cuts, tax increases and an improving economy begin to tame the government’s red ink, the White House budget office said on Monday. ... But absent structural changes to Medicare and Social Security, the forecast makes clear that such short-run improvements may not last. The White House projected the deficit to bottom out at $496 billion in 2018, then start ticking back up to $593 billion in 2022 (Weisman, 7/8).
The Washington Post: OMB Shrinks Its Budget Deficit Forecast
Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said the budget projections were worrisome. "Ominously, the president provides no serious proposal for strengthening and preserving our unsustainable Medicare and Social Security programs," he said in a statement. "The president's plan is simply to tax more in order to spend more: avoiding any attempt at reducing the waste and inefficiency that plagues the federal budget" (Goldfarb, 7/8).
