Toomey Concerned over CBO Economic Projections

Member Group : U.S. Senator Pat Toomey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 31, 2012

Contact: Nachama Soloveichik (202) 224-0437
or Rebecca Neal (202) 224-8609

SEN. TOOMEY EXPRESSES CONCERN
OVER CBO ECONOMIC PROJECTIONS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) expressed concern over the latest budget and economic projections released by the Congressional Budget Office today.

Under current law, the CBO projects that yearly spending will increase from $3.6 trillion in 2011 to $5.52 trillion in 2022. Even with the massive tax increases and the sequestered defense cuts going into effect next year, the interest on our debt will increase from $227 billion in 2011 to $624 billion in 2022, an increase of 175 percent.

To make matters worse, this gloomy projection assumes that many popular tax provisions will expire in 2013, including the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the AMT patch for middle-income families, and many corporate provisions. This is a very unrealistic assumption that augurs an even worse fiscal outlook.

"The country’s gloomy fiscal forecast is a failure of leadership on the part of the president and this administration," Sen. Toomey said. "The record levels of debt are already hampering our economic recovery and job growth, and absent a substantive plan to tackle our country’s spending addiction, our current problems are only going to get worse. The president side stepped our spending and deficit problems in his State of the Union speech last week. I hope he will not take the easy way out in his forthcoming budget proposal and will put forward a responsible solution that tackles our looming fiscal crisis."

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Nachama Soloveichik
Communications Director
U.S Senator Pat Toomey
502 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
O: 202-224-4254
C: 646-528-1029
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