Updated Budget Projections: 2016 to 2026

Abstract : As it typically does after the Presidents budget is released, the Congressional Budget Office has updated the 10-year baseline budget projections it published early in the year. CBO now estimates that if no further legislation is enacted this year that affects the federal budget, the total federal deficit for fiscal year 2016 will be $534 billion, about $100 billion greater than the shortfall posted in fiscal year 2015 (see Table 1). If current laws generally remained unchanged, the deficit would increase (in dollar terms) in nearly every year over the next decade and, CBO projects, by 2026 it would be considerably larger as a share of the nations output (gross domestic product, or GDP) than its average over the past 50 years (see Figure 1). Debt held by the public also would rise significantly from its already high level, reaching 86 percent of GDP by 2026.