Feb. 17, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The Congressional Budget Office has come out with a spending projection and it’s terrifying.
Spending is one of the few government issues I really care about.
Here’s the summary from the CBO:
The Federal Budget
Deficits are large by historical standards. The deficit totals $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2026 and grows to $3.1 trillion in 2036. Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit is 5.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 and increases to 6.7 percent in 2036. Deficits averaged 3.8 percent of GDP over the last 50 years (see Chapter 1).
Debt held by the public rises from 101 percent of GDP in 2026 to 120 percent in 2036, well above the previous record of 106 percent just after World War II.
Outlays are large by historical standards—and growing. They total 23.3 percent of GDP in 2026, exceeding their 50-year average of 21.2 percent. After being adjusted for shifts in the timing of certain payments, outlays remain at about that level through 2028 but then grow steadily, boosted by rising spending on mandatory programs and increasing net interest costs. Outlays in 2036 are 24.4 percent of GDP (see Chapter 3).
Revenues in 2026 total 17.5 percent of GDP, surpassing their 50-year average of 17.3 percent. Revenues stay at or slightly above that 2026 level through 2036, when they total 17.8 percent of GDP. Over the 2026–2036 period, individual income tax receipts and remittances from the Federal Reserve rise as a percentage of GDP; those increases are offset by declining customs duties receipts as imports, as a percentage of GDP, fall in response to tariffs (see Chapter 4).
That is bad enough. For the entire report, see this link.
The Congressional Budget Office, according to its website, “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provides the Congress with objective, nonpartisan, and timely information, analyses, and estimates related to federal economic and budgetary decisions.”
Now how accurate or biased such things are will always be debated, but don’t let the squabbling obscure the truth: the government is spending too much and almost nobody cares.
I don’t like paying taxes, but when a country is running a deficit, I don’t understand the logic behind cutting taxes for certain groups, even if I fall into one of the favored categories.
Sooner or later, somebody is going to have to deal with this, and the millions spent on things like the Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle, dollars supplied by the sale of federal debt, will haunt us long after The Bethlehem Co-Op Boondoggle and other boondoggles across the political spectrum are forgotten.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 