The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a report titled “Choices for Deficit Reduction” that addresses the extraordinary budgetary challenges faced by the United States. Federal debt held by the public exceeds 70% of the nation’s annual output (GDP) – a percentage not seen since 1950 -- and a continuation of current policies would boost the debt further. The CBO report reviews the scale and sources of the federal government’s budgetary imbalance, various options for bringing spending and taxes into closer alignment, and criteria that lawmakers and the public might use to evaluate different approaches to deficit reduction. A copy of the report can be accessed here.
