What's Wrong With This Fiscal Picture?

Just how screwed is the U.S. fiscal situation? And how unwilling is the White House to even attempt to fix it? Take a look at these two discrete passages from the Congressional Budget Office's brutal analysis of the president's budget proposal:

First, the revenue side:

As a share of GDP, revenues would average 18.7 percent over the next 10 years under the President's budget, compared with 19.9 percent in CBO's baseline projections.

OK. So maybe the president overstated projected revenue. Is that so bad? Well, compare those numbers to the spending side of the equation:

As a percentage of GDP, outlays would average 23.5 percent over the next decade under the President's budget—well above the average of 20.8 percent seen over the past 40 years.

Notice how they don't match up? Even accounting for the higher revenues the White House hopes to bring in under its rainbow-and-unicorns economic growth assumptions, the federal government is still projected to spend far more than it brings in. I'll have more on the president's budget proposal tomorrow.

Watch Reason.tv's budget chef with Nick Gillespie: