IWS Documented News DAILY POSTINGS

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
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Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2007 to 2016
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=7027&sequence=0&from=7
or
http://mirror1.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/70xx/doc7027/01-26-BudgetOutlook.pdf
[full-text, 196 pages]

[excerpts]
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects
that under current laws and policies, the federal budget
will report a deficit of $337 billion in 2006 (see Summary
Table 1). That estimate is somewhat higher than the
$318 billion shortfall recorded in 2005 but about the
same in comparison to the size of the nation’s economy.
At 2.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), this
year’s deficit would be slightly larger than the 2.3 percent
average recorded since 1965.
...
Under the assumptions incorporated in CBO’s baseline—
in particular, that various tax increases occur as
scheduled and that discretionary spending grows at the
rate of inflation—the budget deficit totals $270 billion
(2.0 percent of GDP) in 2007 and continues to fall thereafter,
essentially reaching balance in 2012. After that, the
budget remains close to balance in the baseline, showing
small surpluses ranging from $40 billion to $73 billion
through 2016 (the end of the current projection period).
...
Over the longer term, the aging of the U.S. population
combined with rapidly rising health care costs will put
significant strains on the federal budget, which begin to
be evident within the projection period. When the first
members of the baby-boom generation reach age 62 in
2008, they will become eligible for Social Security benefits.
As a result, the annual rate of growth of Social Security
spending is expected to increase from about 4.8 percent
in 2008 to 6.5 percent in 2016.

In addition, because the cost of health care is likely to
continue rising rapidly, the annual rate of growth of
Medicare spending is projected to increase from 7.4 percent
in 2008 to about 8.9 percent in 2016.

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
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# posted by SBasefsky : 12:10 PM