By Casey Harper | The Center Square
President Joe Biden is expected to deliver the State of the Union address tonight, and economic and fiscal policy experts are raising the alarm about the fiscal state of the nation.
The National Association for Business Economics (NABE) released its economic growth projections for the next quarter and downgraded its forecasts.
“NABE panelists have downgraded their forecasts for economic growth in 2022,” the report said. “The median forecast for inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (real GDP) growth from the fourth quarter (Q4) 2021 to Q4 2022 is 2.9% – down from the 3.6% forecasted in the December 2021 Outlook Survey. In general, panelists anticipate further deceleration in GDP growth in 2023: the median forecast calls for GDP growth of 2.3%.”
The report said experts point to policy “missteps” as a key factor.
“Thirty percent of panelists identify monetary policy missteps as the greatest downside risk,” the report said. “One-quarter (25%) sees ongoing supply-chain issues and 19% cite geopolitical tensions/global growth slowdown as the most prominent downside risks to their growth projection (considering both probability of occurrence and potential impact).”
Experts point to the soaring national debt and inflation as key reasons for the economic woes. Federal inflation data released Friday showed another significant increase in prices, the latest in a steady trend of inflation figures that have economists worried.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data on Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE), a key marker of inflation, which has shown a sharp rise in recent months.
“The PCE price index for January increased 6.1 percent from one year ago, reflecting increases in both goods and services …” BEA said. “Energy prices increased 25.9 percent while food prices increased 6.7 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index for January increased 5.2 percent from one year ago.”
That increase was the highest in nearly four decades.
A coalition of groups has come together to support a congressional resolution to require an annual “Fiscal State of the Union” to be released by certain federal agencies.
“This concurrent resolution requires the congressional budget committees to conduct an annual joint hearing to receive a presentation from the Comptroller General regarding (1) the Government Accountability Office’s audit of the financial statement of the executive branch, and (2) the financial position and condition of the federal government,” said the official summary of the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., in the Senate and Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., in the House.
The House has approved the measure, but the companion resolution in the Senate is still in committee.
“Lawmakers need to begin paying more attention to our fiscal outlook,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “An Annual hearing by the Senate and House Budget Committees featuring the Comptroller General would shine some much-needed light on our unsustainable budget situation, rather than sweeping it under the carpet.”
The groups emphasized Republicans and Democrats are responsible for the national debt, which recently surpassed $30 trillion. The national debt has increased significantly under both Democratic and Republican administrations over the past two decades.
“Both parties in Congress need to get serious about America’s debt and deficits, and it starts with a full, honest, and public accounting of the country’s financial health,” said Andrew Lautz, director of federal policy for National Taxpayers Union. “The Fiscal State of the Nation resolution is a first sensible step in understanding the federal government’s budget picture from year to year.”
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Would we at this minute be invading Mexico in the event that China had just shipped 300 million dollars worth of "deadly aid" there and placed it on Mexico's northern border facing the United States?
NATO is merely the mob and they exert influence on behalf of "democracy loving" government officials such as Ukraine's Kira Rudyk, who on February 28th in an interview on Fox News admitted the very same thing, namely– "We not only fight for Ukraine, we fight for this new world order for the democratic countries"
Indeed were NATO to position missiles at America's borders (allegedly on behalf of Mexico), we could easily dismiss any threat intended because NATO only enforces "democracy."
Hundreds of billions of dollars of deadly aid in the last ten years devoted to making the borders of certain nations safe for 'America's values because that's who we are.' America has been raped financially and it's not getting back up because it's manufacturing base has been shipped overseas. Hence another war is manufactured on behalf of "our values" employing the only industrial base remaining inside our borders: military weapons and equipment.
Democracy. Our values, civil rights and genital surgery for transexual children, hate crime prosecutions for those opposing drag queen story, the LGBTQ flag waiving at the US consul in Afghanistan. It's who we are. It's what we fight for.