Yesterday, March 9, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its updated budget projections for the next decade, from fiscal 2015 through 2025. This update to the previous projections published by CBO in January is typically performed after the President’s budget is released. CBO estimates that if current laws remain in place, the federal budget deficit will total $486 billion in fiscal 2015 – roughly the same level as the shortfall recorded in fiscal 2014 but $18 billion (4 percent) above the legislative agency’s previous estimate for fiscal 2015 released in January.
The CBO lowered its projected shortfall over the next 10 years from fiscal 2016-2025 by roughly $431 billion compared to the $7.6 trillion projected in January. The single largest factor contributing to this reduction is a downward revision in projected growth in premiums for private health insurance, which both boosts projections of revenues from income and payroll taxes and reduces the estimated net costs of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance provisions.