CBO’s new interactive tool allows users to simulate the agency’s process for projecting discretionary budget authority and outlays for different types of spending over the course of 10 years.

    

This morning I briefed the press about The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2019 to 2029, which CBO published today. I delivered the following remarks about that report. Also presented here are some answers to questions that I expected to receive.

    

This workbook allows users to enter an alternative scenario for productivity growth, labor force growth, inflation, or interest rates and see estimates of revenues, several types of spending, and deficits under those scenarios.

    

In CBO’s projections, deficits remain large by historical standards, and federal debt grows to equal 93 percent of GDP by 2029. As the effects of fiscal stimulus wane, projected economic growth falls back below the historical average.

    

CBO estimates that the partial shutdown delayed $18 billion in federal spending and suspended some federal services, thus lowering the projected level of real GDP in the first quarter of 2019 by $8 billion (in 2019 dollars), or 0.2 percent.