Toomey Expresses Concern over CBO Budget Outlook

Member Group : U.S. Senator Pat Toomey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 5, 2012

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

SEN. TOOMEY EXPRESSES CONCERN
OVER CBO BUDGET OUTLOOK REPORT

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) expressed concern over the long-term budget outlook report released by the Congressional Budget Office today.

Under the status quo baseline, the national debt will continue to explode. Without major changes, debt held by the public will rise from 73 percent of GDP at the end of 2012 to 93 percent within 10 years, approaching Europe’s disastrous levels. Twenty-five years from now, the national debt will reach 200 percent of GDP.

Absent major entitlement reform, the country’s entitlement programs will continue their unsustainable growth. Spending on mandatory health care programs will nearly double in 25 years and the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted by the early to mid-2020s. By 2022, spending on Social Security, health care programs and interest will consume nearly 90 percent of expected revenue.

"The country’s gloomy fiscal forecast is a failure of leadership on the part of the president and the Democratic majority in the Senate," 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 and unsustainable entitlement programs, our current problems are only going to get worse.

"I introduced a budget this year and last year because our country desperately needs a fiscal blueprint that will balance our budget, reform our entitlement programs and restore economic prosperity. Unfortunately, the president has refused to engage in a serious discussion about our fiscal future and the looming crisis, and Senate Democrats have refused to propose a budget of any kind, let alone one that addresses these problems. I hope the CBO’s most recent outlook report will serve as the wake-up call this administration needs."

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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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