Mid-Session Review: Little Change in Broad Outlook

Despite a strengthening economy, the administration’s Mid-Session Review budget projections show little change in the overall fiscal outlook.

The report, released Friday, anticipates a deficit for the current fiscal year of $583 billion, down $66 billion from the administration’s March projection. But the administration says that under its proposed budget, deficits over the next decade would add $5.5 trillion to the debt — up by $600 billion over the March estimate.

While the deficit is lower than the earlier projection for 2014-16, it is higher in all subsequent years. The biggest change: Revenues are now projected to be $760 billion lower over the coming decade.

Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby says it will take more than economic growth to put the nation on a sustainable long-term path. So Democrats and Republicans must move past their current stalemate.

“But there is little at this point that is moving the ball forward,” he notes in a new blog post. “The missing element is still meaningful negotiation over how best to meet the nation’s big fiscal challenges.”

External links:
The Mid-Session Review (OMB)