Budget Projections

CBO's budget projections give the Congress a baseline against which to measure the effects of proposed changes in tax and spending laws. The projections start with the Congress's most recent budgetary decisions and show what would happen to the federal budget if no policy changes were made over the projection period. For revenues and entitlement programs, such as Social Security or Medicare, the baseline projections generally assume that current laws will continue without change. For discretionary spending, CBO (as directed by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985) assumes that budget authority for discretionary programs will grow at the rate of inflation each year after 2008. For more information about CBO and its budget projections, please see About CBO.

CBO's most recent budget projections were released in the The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update, on September 9, 2008. The budget projections include these:

• CBO’s Baseline Budget Projections
• CBO’s Baseline Projections of Mandatory Outlays
• Defense and Nondefense Discretionary Outlays, 1985 to 2008
• CBO’s Baseline Projections of Federal Interest Outlays and Debt
• Changes in CBO’s Baseline Projections of the Deficit or Surplus Since March 2008
• The Budgetary Effects of Selected Policy Alternatives Not Included in CBO's Baseline

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