(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) The U.S. Government Accountability Office has issued a report which shows that the United States government “faces an unsustainable fiscal future,” according to a report from the Washington Examiner.
While rocketing inflation, cratering stocks, and persistent supply chain woes have the administration and public focused on the day-to-day economic crisis, the nation’s auditor has just issued a dire warning about the future.
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 6, 2022
According to the GAO, the purpose of its annual report is “to examine the current fiscal condition of the federal government and its future fiscal path, absent policy changes in revenue and program spending.”
The report used a 75-year simulation to project “the federal government’s fiscal outlook” and discovered that “large annual budget deficits,” “Medicare and Social Security costs,” and “Interest costs” are the major factors driving an unsustainably “growing debt.”
Currently, public debt is around 100% of GDP, which amounts to a 33% increase from 2019.
The GAO projected that it will rise to 106% in 10 years and continue to rise exponentially thereafter.
The report also refused to blame the COVID-19 pandemic for its bleak assessment.
“The underlying conditions driving this unsustainable fiscal outlook existed well before the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to pose serious challenges if not addressed,” the auditors wrote.
Among its recommendations, the GAO — whose mission is to provide the federal government with “non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars” — suggested that the federal government ought to “incorporate well-designed fiscal rules and targets to help manage debt by controlling factors such as spending and revenue.”
With the Democrat-led House of Representatives on the cusp of approving an additional $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, one can be certain the GAO’s warnings will fall on deaf ears.
GAO provides Congress, the heads of executive agencies, and the public with timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
