CBO Scores Obama's Budget

I know everyone's been distracted lately with health care, the Olympics, and the last season of Lost, but the budget process has been churning away silently these past few months. While we await Congress' budget resolution on April 15, the Congressional Budget Office decided to remind us all that the process is still moving ahead by releasing an analysis of the President's budget, one which is significantly less rosy than the President's estimate.

Granted, this is a somewhat ridiculous exercise, since Congress will likely ignore the President's budget, but it at least gives us a starting place. In any case, according to the CBO, Obama's budget proposal will add approximately $9.8 trillion to the nation's debt over the next ten years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration's own estimates. Almost all of this 14 percent difference comes in the out years, 2016-2020; in fact, the CBO's analysis is pretty close to the administration's over the next several years. For FY 2011, the upcoming budget year, the CBO estimates Obama's proposals would create a $1.341 trillion deficit, which is only a few percentage points higher than Obama's estimates.

Hit up the CBO report for all the fun, and, to save you the Googling, here's the President's budget from last month.

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