The U.S. Census Bureau came out with with a report this month on aging in the United States. Not to anyone's surprise, the report found that between now and 2050 we are projected to experience rapid growth among the older population. In fact, the number of Americans that will be aged 65 or older in 2050 is projected to double from what it is now (40.2 million in 2010).

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its Monthly Budget Review late last week. CBO reports that the federal government incurred a deficit of $800 billion for the first seven months of fiscal year 2010, about the same level as the deficit recorded for this same period last year. 

Last week the Office of the Medicare Chief Actuary came out with their "Estimated Effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," as amended by reconciliation. The document estimates the financial and coverage effects through FY 2019 of selected provisions of the recently passed health care reform bill. There has been some confusion regarding the Medicare Actuary's report and how it lines up next to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of the same bill, with many believing the Medicare Actuary projects greater costs than CBO. 

Yesterday the Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) released some highlights of his FY2011 budget blueprint, or Chairman's Mark, followed last night by the release of the full mark. This marks the beginning of the Senate Budget Committee's work to bring a budget to the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

At the Bottom Line we often complain about government officials avoiding hard fiscal choices because of the political difficulty involved. At the state level, one of the biggest hard choices involves the funding of public pensions.

CRFB has talked a lot about deficit and debt projections over the coming decade, and beyond. CBO's analysis of the President's FY 2011 budget shows us where these future deficits are coming from. As the effects of the recession slowly subside, federal outlays and revenues are scheduled to rise above historical norms. What is troubling about this is that the growth in outlays will exceed the growth in revenues, piling more onto our nation's debt.

This morning, we released our review of CBO's Analysis of the President's Budget, which discusses the budget implications of the President's FY 2011 budget proposals in detail, including the new deficit and debt projections and the path of revenues and outlays. However, the CBO did not update its economic assumptions from the January 2010 baseline.

There has been a great deal of discussion about certain parts of the health care bill and whether or not they constitute budget gimmickry (see here and here).

Here is where we come down:

CRFB has yet again updated its health care comparison chart -- as well as its interactive shareable graphs -- in light of CBO's first score of the health reconciliation bill. 

We encourage you to embed the graphs on your own websites, and only ask that you link back to us. See the charts and graphs here: