The nation's long-term fiscal outlook hasn't significantly improved following the recent agreement between Congress and the White House over tax and spending issues, according to a new analysis.
The "fiscal cliff" deal, combined with the debt-limit agreement of August 2011, only slightly delays the United States reaching debt-to-gross domestic product levels that would damage the economy and risk another fiscal crisis, according to a report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation released on Tuesday.
The agreement "may have prevented the immediate threats that the fiscal cliff posed to our fragile economic recovery, but we haven’t remotely fixed the nation’s debt problem," said Michael A. Peterson, president and COO of the Peterson Foundation.
"The primary goal of any sustainable fiscal policy is to stabilize the debt as a share of the economy and put it on a downward path, and yet our nation is still heading toward debt levels of 200 percent of GDP and beyond," he said.
The report concludes that the recent round of deficit-reduction measures won't make major improvements because they fail to address most of the major contributors to the debt and deficit, including rapidly rising healthcare costs.
Source: The Hill
---
Unlimited QE + 103% Debt To GDP & Growing... Hyperstaginflation Is Virtually Assured
Q4 GDP Forecast At 1.0% Following Trade Data
Financial Stability Board (FSB) Report: Global Shadow Banking System Rises To $67 Trillion, Just Shy Of 100% Of Global GDP
1000x Systemic Leverage: $600 Trillion In Gross Derivatives "Backed" By $600 Billion In Collateral (The Most Important Financial Problem)
The U.S. Fiscal Gap Is Now $222 Trillion. Last Year, It Was $211 Trillion