U.S. long-term fiscal policies unsustainable
Long-term fiscal outlook of the federal government remains essentially unsustainable, despite some improvements in the annual deficit estimate for this fiscal year, says the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its latest report. In view of this scenario, GAO has predicted that the fiscal policies of the federal government may be impacted by the ever-longer deficits which could possibly lead to debt burdens to run out of control. These findings were based on GAO's latest simulations of two alternative fiscal paths using baseline extended option and an alternative based on recent trends and policy preferences. "Under these alternative assumptions, discretion by spending grows with the economy during the first ten years, most of which go to Medicare physician payments," GAO reported. Under the current law, Medicare payments to physicians have not been reduced and revenues are brought to their current level. In order to sustain this growth path, physician payments are ...