Long-Term Budget Outlook? It’s Not Good

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) pointed to the Long-Term Budget Report released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as confirmation of the public sentiment that the new healthcare bill signed into law earlier this year will increase the deficit. 

“The number one thing Americans were concerned about during the health care debate was reducing costs,” said Enzi.  “Today’s report confirms what the public already knows – the health law costs too much and does too little to reduce costs.  Unfortunately the Majority ignored the public and rammed a bill through Congress that makes the health spending situation, and ultimately the nation’s bulging deficit, worse.”

CBO’s report indicated that federal government has been recording the largest budget deficits, as a share of the economy, since the end of World War II.  As a result of those deficits, the amount of federal debt held by the public has surged and spending on government health programs as a result of the new healthcare bill passed earlier this year will double over the next 25 years.  CBO also predicts total national health spending to grow from 15 percent of Gross Domestic Product to 26 percent in the next 25 years.

According to a recent Rasmussen public opinion poll, 59 percent of voters believe the health care bill will increase the federal deficit.  Click HERE to view the full CBO Long-Term Budget Report.

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