Recent Reports Show Gloomy Economic Future Unless Changes Are Made

Press Release

Today, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report stating the US debt is on track to be nearly twice the size of the US economy by 2037. According to their report, the biggest driver of this debt is the increased entitlement spending that will be necessary as more baby boomers retire. This news is worse than the report issued by the CBO last year, even with the $2.1 trillion in budget cuts enacted in last year's debt ceiling deal. In the 2011 report, CBO said debt as a share of GDP would reach 109 percent of the economy by 2026. This latest report expects us to get to that sooner -- by 2023. The CBO also noted that debt stood at 40 percent of GDP at the end of 2008 when the president took office and will have almost doubled by the end of his first term -- up to 70 percent of GDP by the end of this year.

"We have known for a while that our country is on a path towards a fiscal cliff, but today's report mixed with the recent job numbers reiterate that President Obama's policies are racing us towards that cliff with the pedal to the metal," stated Westmoreland. "This report shows once again that we absolutely must address the biggest drivers of our debt -- entitlement spending. Reforming our entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security is the only way to save them -- and to save our country from being bankrupted by them."

This report comes on the heels of the worst job numbers in the last year. In the month of May, only 69,000 new jobs were added, increasing unemployment to 8.2 percent nationwide. In addition, it was announced fewer jobs than initially reported in March and April were added. Yet President Obama still claims the economic recovery has been "extraordinary" while on the campaign trail.

"If you compare the so-called "recovery' the president has referred to as "extraordinary' to the average recovery of the last ten recessions in this country, we have 4.3 million jobs less than the average," stated Westmoreland. "I'm pretty sure that anything that's 4.3 million below the average is the exact opposite of "extraordinary.' Clearly the president is completely disconnected from the realities facing the American people. It's time he face the facts: his economic policy of out-of-control government spending to create jobs has failed. Rather than growing the job market, it's just grown the size of the federal government and the amount of our national debt. It's time the president work with House Republicans to enact sensible reforms to boost the economy and create jobs -- without raising taxes and increasing government spending."

The report is based on what the CBO refers to as the most likely scenario, where the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are extended and entitlement spending is not curbed through reform.

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