Washington, DC -- Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has warned that the President's budget is not aggressive enough in reducing the medium or long-term deficit, and CBO's analysis projects a significantly worse situation than the Administration does, with the President's Budget plan resulting in larger and continuously rising budget deficits.

The budget proposal would increase the debt held by the public from $5.8 trillion, or 40.8 percent of GDP, in 2008 to $17.3 trillion, or 82.4 percent of GDP, by 2019. This is significantly larger than CBO's baseline estimate of $11.8 trillion, or 56 percent of GDP in 2019. It is also far greater than the debt levels projected by the Administration under its policy proposals of $15.4 trillion or 67 percent of GDP in 2019. 

To see CRFB's analysis of the CBO report, visit: http://www.crfb.org/documents/CBOAnalysisofBudget.pdf

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a bipartisan organization committed to educating policy makers and the public about issues related to fiscal policy. The Committee is located at the New America Foundation. Please visit www.crfb.org.