Jobs
CBO Projects High Unemployment to Continue: The Congressional Budget Office released its recently updated Budget and Economic Outlook, projecting that slow economic growth will not generate enough job creation to bring the unemployment level below 8 percent until 2014. President Obama’s economic advisors promised that unemployment would not exceed this level if the stimulus was passed in February 2009.
Spending
Budget Deficits: According to CBO’s latest outlook, fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. This year’s shortfall will represent 8.5 percent of GDP, the third largest deficit in the past 65 years (exceeded only by the deficits of the preceding two years). Outlays will amount to 23.8 percent of GDP, well above their 40-year average of 20.8 percent. To pay for President Obama’s spending binge, according to CBO, debt held by the public will continue to increase over the next ten years, consuming roughly three quarters of the economy in 2013.
Medicare
Kaiser Poll: More Seniors Don’t Believe ObamaCare Good for Medicare: Kaiser’s most recent Health Tracking Poll which addresses Medicare reports among seniors, 45 percent think the Medicare program will be worse off under the law while just 20 percent think it will be better. The 20 percent “better off” figure is down from a high of only 25 percent when the question was first asked in July 2010. The 45 percent of seniors who believe Medicare will be worse off is up 7 percent since only the previous month’s poll.