Under the President’s proposed budget for 2016, CBO estimates, the federal budget deficit would decline from $486 billion in 2015 to $384 billion in 2016, but then climb in subsequent years, reaching $801 billion in 2025. Federal debt held by the public would remain in the vicinity of 72...

Under current law, CBO estimates the deficit will total $486 billion in 2015, about the same as in 2014. However, because the nation’s output has increased, the projected deficit for 2015 represents a slightly lower percentage of GDP—2.7 percent. If current laws generally remain unchanged,...

The President's proposals would, relative to CBO's current-law baseline, boost deficits from 2014 through 2016 but reduce them from 2017 through 2024, CBO and JCT estimate. Deficits would total $6.6 trillion between 2015 and 2024, $1.0 trillion less than the cumulative deficit in CBO's baseline....

Although federal deficits have shrunk markedly in recent years, growing spending for Social Security and major health care programs, along with increasing interest costs, would cause them to rise steadily over the long term. The larger deficits would cause federal debt to grow faster than the...

Under current law, the deficit will decrease to $492 billion in 2014, CBO projects, as revenues continue rebounding from their low in the recession. But beginning in 2016, deficits will rise again—largely because of an aging population, rising health care costs, an expansion of federal...

Federal agencies spent over $500 billion for contracted products and services in 2012, according to federal data. Between 2000 and 2012, such spending grew more quickly than inflation and also grew as a percentage of total federal spending.

CBO reports annually to the Congress on programs funded for the current fiscal year for which authorizations of appropriations have expired, and programs for which authorizations of appropriations will expire during the current fiscal year.

Spending from the Highway Trust Fund exceeds its revenues. What options do lawmakers have to address the fund's imbalance? How does the unique classification of surface transportation programs in the federal budget limit the effectiveness of standard spending controls?

CBO projects that, under current law, the federal budget deficit will fall to $468 billion in 2015 – 2.6 percent of GDP – and remain roughly stable, as a percentage of GDP, through 2018. After that, the gap between spending and revenues is projected to grow, raising the already high level of...

Loan guarantees made in the Federal Housing Administration's single-family mortgage program between 1992 and 2013 are now projected to generate small costs over their lifetimes rather than the significant savings that were recorded in the federal budget at the time the guarantees were made. That...