House Republican Conference Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) today released the following statement on the Congressional Budget Office’s report on the grim economic outlook for fiscal years 2011 - 2021:

"The CBO’s report paints a picture that is more dangerous than most Americans could anticipate.  The next fiscal decade will no doubt be our worst, with debt held by the public nearly doubling in size. 

What is our leader in the White House doing about it?  Asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling, proposing new spending, and sticking future generations with a multi-trillion dollar tab. 

My question for the president is ‘how is speeding down the road to national bankruptcy and borrowing more money from the Chinese going to make us more competitive?’ 

While the President and Congressional Democrats are putting us on track to double the size of our debt, House Republicans are taking responsible approaches to cut spending and grow the economy.  If the president is serious at all about controlling our economic crisis, he will follow our lead and commit to major spending cuts and spending reforms.”

Key findings in the report:

• By 2021, the gross national debt is estimated to reach $25.046 trillion, a ten year increase of $10.978 trillion, or 78 percent.  Debt held by the public is estimated to reach $18.253 trillion by 2021, a ten year increase of $8.838 trillion or 94 percent.

• The FY 2011 deficit is estimated to reach an all time record high of $1.48 trillion.  This would be the highest deficit on record and would be $186 billion or 14.3 percent above last year’s $1.294 trillion deficit.  The FY 2011 deficit would be $63 billion or 4.4 percent more than the previous record deficit of $1.417 trillion in FY 2009.

• The FY 2011 deficit is estimated to be 9.8 percent of GDP, up from 8.9 percent of GDP in FY 2010. 

• Over 10 years, deficits are estimated to total $6.971 trillion.  In FY 2012 the deficit is estimated to be $1.1 trillion, the fourth consecutive year the deficit will eclipse the $1 trillion mark.  The lowest deficit in any year is estimated to be $551 billion in FY 2015, however, the deficit would then increase to $763 billion by FY 2021.

NOTE: Within the first month in the majority, House Republicans sent the following measures to the Senate to cut spending and reduce the deficit. 

• Voted to reduce the deficit by $700 billion and to reduce spending by more than $2.6 trillion by repealing Obamacare.
• Voted to roll spending back to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving more than $100 billion over the next 12 months.
• Voted to ban Congressional earmarks and cut House budgets by five percent.
• Voted to save $617 million by ending taxpayer funding for candidates and conventions.
• Changed the culture of the House from having weekly votes to create more government programs and more spending, to weekly “YouCut” votes to cut spending and eliminate wasteful government programs.

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