How Dangerous Is America’s Debt?

The Congressional Budget Office is normally a sleepy place where budget wonks prepare little-read estimates on the cost of legislation.

The Congressional Budget Office released the latest version of the long-term budget outlook today. It's an interesting document, because it requires the CBO to do some fancy footwork. In theory, CBO's deficit assumptions project the effects of settled law. And if you do that, revenues pretty much pay for spending over the next few decades. See for yourself:

The Congressional Budget Office has long estimated that malpractice reform won't save much money. Today, however, it reversed course and released an an updated analysis (pdf) saying that strong malpractice reform would save a bit of money: about 0.5 percent of expenditures per year, or $11 billion in 2009.

THE cryptic phrase "fiscal cliff" is creeping into news reports and economic analyses (including our own). Alongside "grexit" and "hard landing" it lurks as a mysterious and malevolent force waiting to wreak havoc on the global economy. The fiscal cliff is an American afflication. At the end of this year several major budget items are scheduled to expire, including an extension of the Bush tax cuts, an extension of the stimulus payroll tax cut, and an extension of emergency unemployment benefits.

By Simon Johnson and James Kwak During this hot summer of fitful economic growth, high unemployment and an oil slick visible from space, Washington is obsessed with…deficits. The resurgence of this periodic fascination is not entirely surprising, given our historically large current deficits. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2010 deficit will come in at $1.3 trillion, almost 10 percent of our gross domestic product and, along with the deficit of 2009, the highest level since World War II.

The Congressional Budget Office has released its initial estimate of the House GOP’s health care alternative, centered on the near-total deregulation of the health insurance industry.