Apr 12 2010
Politico: In remarks to reporters Thursday, Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf warned of a looming budget crisis that "cannot be solved through minor tinkering." The nation's "unsustainable" spending could increase the national debt from $7.5 trillion at the end of 2009 to 20.3 trillion in 2020, when the debt would total 90 percent of gross domestic product, Elmendorf noted (Allen, 4/8).
The Christian Science Monitor, which sponsored the event: "But Elmendorf did stand by the CBO's assertion that the healthcare reform package would reduce the budget deficit over the next 10 years - and in the 10 years after - and acknowledged Washington's challenge in the choices it faces over taxes and spending" (Feldman, 4/8).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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