The Congressional Budget Office revealed on Tuesday that the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year is expected to hit $1.9 trillion, marking a 27% increase of $400 billion from their earlier February estimate.
It won't surprise you to learn that Joe Biden's student debt relief contributed the largest chunk of that increase.
"Most of the spike in the fiscal 2024 deficit stems from four factors that are expected to boost projected spending," CNN explains. "The largest is a $145 billion increase due to changes the Biden administration made to student loan repayment plans and a new, proposed forgiveness program that would waive some accrued interest for millions of borrowers. The latter has yet to be finalized but could take effect as soon as this fall."
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As bad as this sounds, the situation is even worse than you think. It is anticipated that our national debt "will approach $57 trillion in fiscal year 2034, nearly $2.5 trillion higher than previously projected, as spending on Social Security, Medicare and interest payments soar and revenues fail to keep pace."
Does this sound sustainable to anyone?
Also, the CBO increased the projected outlays for deposit insurance by about $70 billion because the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is not recovering disbursements it made when resolving five bank failures from the last fiscal year and this fiscal year as quickly as anticipated. Three of the five bank failures in 2023 were among the largest bank failures in US history. To replenish the multibillion-dollar hit to the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund due to recent bank failures, the agency is temporarily levying higher fees on hundreds of insured banks and selling off failed banks’ assets.
Newly enacted legislation is increasing projected discretionary spending by $60 billion, and estimated spending on Medicaid is about $50 billion higher because actual outlays so far in fiscal year 2024 have been larger than expected. The fiscal year began on October 1.
The cumulative deficit over the 2025 to 2034 period is now projected to be 10% – or $2.1 trillion – larger, the CBO said.
Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed to have an unmatched record on deficit reduction.
"In my first two years, I reduced the debt by $1.7 trillion," Biden claimed last year. "No president has ever done that."
Biden did no such thing. The deficit reduction he spoke of was actually due to the expiration of emergency pandemic spending. Several fact-checkers, including PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, debunked Biden's claim. Heck, even CNN called him out.
The Congressional Budget Office now forecasts that the FY2024 deficit will reach $2 trillion, and reach $2.8 trillion by FY2034, which probably means it will actually happen sooner.
“CBO’s new report shows that the outlook for America’s critical national debt challenge is worsening,” Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, told CNN. “This is an important time for a national conversation on these critical fiscal and economic challenges that we must address next year, and beyond.”
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