Maya MacGuineas: Massive Deficit Was Totally Predictable & Self-Imposed

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. She recently wrote an opinion piece for The Hill, an excerpt of which is below.

"The deficit was $779 billion this past year?! How on earth did that happen?!," lawmakers gasp. 

The numbers are terrible. It is indeed cause for alarm, and it necessitates action. To have a deficit this large during a period of prosperity (when we should ideally be running surpluses) is nearly unprecedented. 

But, to our leaders; can we please drop the political antics?

Not all lawmakers are at fault here, that’s for sure. Those who voted against the shockingly irresponsible Republican tax cut and the bipartisan budget-busting spending increases are not complicit in the massive uptick in the deficit.

Read the entire piece here.

"My Views" are works published by members of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, but they do not necessarily reflect the views of all members of the Committee.

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Student Loans Cost $340 Billion More than Expected

Based in part on new data from the Congressional Budget Office, this piece shows: The estimated federal cost of student loans issued between 2015 and 2024 has increased by $340 billion – from a projected gain of $135 billion in the 2014 baseline to an expected loss of $205 billion in the 2024 baseline. Much of the cost increase can be explained by the expansion and increased enrollment in income-driven repayment (IDR). In forward projections, graduate school loans are now nearly as subsidized as undergraduate loans and make up half of the cost of newly issued student loans. Reforming graduate loans to be cost-neutral would generate over $100 billion in deficit reduction over the next decade.

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