More fuel for the fire

Another opinion on our fiscal problems - read the just-released CBO (Congressional Budget Office) report "Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 Through 2021". Of course they are required by Congress to make some overly-optimistic assumptions in their calculations:

In particular, the baseline projections in this report are based on the following assumptions:

* Sharp reductions in Medicare's payment rates for physicians' services take effect as scheduled at the end of 2011;

* Extensions of unemployment compensation, the one-year reduction in the payroll tax, and the two-year extension of provisions designed to limit the reach of the alternative minimum tax all expire as scheduled at the end of 2011;

* Other provisions of the 2010 tax act, including extensions of lower tax rates and expanded credits and deductions originally enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, and ARRA, expire as scheduled at the end of 2012; and

* Funding for discretionary spending increases with inflation rather than at the considerably faster pace seen over the dozen years leading up to the recent recession.

Yet even with these overly-optimistic assumptions the news is dismal!