The government wrapped up Fiscal Year 2010 last week but let’s skip the champagne. The likely 2010 deficit of approximately $1.3 trillion and the previous year’s deficit of $1.4 trillion were the two largest federal deficits since World War II.
But much of the recent red ink can be traced to the recession. The big problem is that even as the economy recovers, projections indicate that the government will start running more huge deficits because of rising health care costs, the aging population and structural problems in the federal budget that predated the recession.
The government wrapped up Fiscal Year 2010 last week but let’s skip the champagne. The likely 2010 deficit of approximately $1.3 trillion and the previous year’s deficit of $1.4 trillion were the two largest federal deficits since World War II.
But much of the recent red ink can be traced to the recession. The big problem is that even as the economy recovers, projections indicate that the government will start running more huge deficits because of rising health care costs, the aging population and structural problems in the federal budget that predated the recession.
So in a blog post, Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert Bixby suggests some resolutions for the new fiscal year for the President, his fiscal commission, Congress, the media and the public. They include overcoming partisan differences, phasing in deficit reduction as the economy recovers, following appropriate budget procedures in Congress, avoiding “fuzzy math” and accepting that sacrifices will be required for a more prosperous future.
