An Analysis of the President's 2014 Budget

Abstract : This report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) presents an analysis of the proposals contained in the President's budget request for fiscal year 2014. The analysis is based on CBO's economic projections and estimating assumptions and models, rather than the Administration's, and incorporates estimates by the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) for the President's tax proposals. In conjunction with analyzing the President's budget, CBO has updated its baseline budget projections, which were previously issued in February 2013. Unlike its estimates of the President's budget, CBO's baseline projections largely reflect the assumption that current tax and spending laws will remain unchanged, so as to provide a benchmark against which potential legislation can be measured. Under that assumption, CBO estimates that the deficit would total $642 billion in 2013 and that the cumulative deficit over the 2014-2023 period would amount to $6.3 trillion. The President's budget request specifies spending and revenue policies for the 2014-2023 period and includes initiatives that would have budgetary effects in fiscal year 2013 as well. According to CBO's and JCT s estimates, enactment of the President's proposals would, relative to CBO's baseline, boost deficits between 2013 and 2015 but reduce them by increasing amounts from 2016 through 2023.