Here’s an eye-opening chart from the green-eyeshade crowd over at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. It shows how far U.S. spending and revenues have veered from the projections made by the Congressional Budget Office in January 2001.
Key takeaways:
1. Entitlement and defense spending didn’t increase all that much beyond what was originally projected, despite the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
2. Defense spending increased by 16%; entitlement spending only by 4%. In part, the Pentagon’s growth doesn’t seem so great because traditionally future defense budgets are pegged at higher levels than ever come to pass.
3. The real bottom line is how much revenues have plummeted from the CBO’s forecast – 52% — thanks largely to President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and the recession.
Full report here.