US: large budget deficits become a permanent feature

According to CBO projections, the federal budget deficit will be 5.6% of GDP per year over the next decade. This is almost half a percentage point less than previous forecasts, but the improvement is due to the (questionable) assumption that automatic spending cuts will be made in the absence of a budget deal. More realistically, unless there is an economic boom, the federal deficit is likely to exceed 6% of GDP per year and, including local government, the total deficit would ea...