Recent legislation and other factors have substantially improved the long-term budget outlook, according to a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). The report, supported by MacArthur, cautions that despite marked improvement since CBPP’s previous projections of 2010, the long-run budget outlook remains challenging and will ultimately present policymakers with difficult choices, according to updated projections through 2040. The report’s key measure is ratio of debt to gross domestic product, which was 73 percent at the end of fiscal year 2012 and will reach 78 percent in 2023 and 99 percent by 2040.
