In The News

Kicking the can down the road with a bridge out ahead requires more business as usual. That is, until business as usual has no effect.

Headline: Obama's Spending Freeze Just 'Spare Change': Roubini

The White House plan to partially freeze government spending is just "spare change" compared to a budget deficit of more than $1 trillion and eventually the US will have to raise taxes, economist Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics told CNBC Wednesday.

President Barack Obama proposed a five-year freeze on non-discretionary defense spending for five year to lower the deficit by about $400 billion.

Source: cnbc.com

Headline: Tax cut deal pushes deficit to $1.5 trillion, CBO says

The federal deficit for 2011 will hit $1.5 trillion, driven higher by the "slow and tentative" economic recovery and the bipartisan tax cut deal passed late last year, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

The deficit forecast would equal to almost 10% of the economy.

And if lawmakers extend many of today's current policies otherwise set to expire soon, the national debt would likely rise by $12 trillion over the decade from 2012 to 2021. That is about $5 trillion more than would be the case otherwise and would bring total debt to $23 trillion, the CBO said.

Source: finance.yahoo.com