The Congressional Budget Office projects an explosive rise in federal debt, despite slight improvements in the past year, as the country faces a fiscal reckoning in the coming decades.
In a much-anticipated update on Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan group of budget experts, said federal debt held by the public will balloon to 107% of the country’s GDP by 2029, the highest level on record. It will then grow to a whopping 166% by 2053.
That is a massive amount of debt that means some important, but difficult, budgetary decisions will need to be made in the coming years. The CBO cautioned Wednesday that the risk of a “fiscal crisis” will increase as debt rises and investors begin to doubt the government’s fiscal footing.
“Such an erosion of confidence would lower the value of Treasury securities and further drive up interest
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