From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: GAO: America's Money Matters - Understanding the
Nation's Long-Term Fiscal Health 

Description: A look at the nation's financial condition and future, and
opportunities to improve it. 

The federal government faces an unsustainable long-term fiscal future,
with increasingly large projected deficits driving high debt levels. 

As the population ages and health care costs increase, spending for
Social Security, federal health care programs, and other program
spending is projected to increase more than revenue. 

GAO recommends that Congress create a fiscal plan to provide
policymakers with a framework to help support difficult policy decisions
to achieve a more sustainable fiscal policy.

Related GAO Works: GAO-23-106201.  The Nation's Fiscal Health: Road Map
Needed to Address Projected Unsustainable Debt Levels     

Released: May 2023

[Speaker 1]
GAO presents America's Money Matters.

[Speaker 2]
Since 2020, people have seen the economic effects of the pandemic and
other major world events.

[Speaker 3]
As well as the federal government's response. Those responses have
included such steps as an increase in federal spending to help people
through the COVID 19 pandemic. In a post-pandemic economy. Interest
rates rose. These events are compounding some preexisting stressors on
the federal government's fiscal condition.

[Speaker 4]
At GAO, we look at debt spending and revenue as key indicators of the
nation's fiscal health. If spending surpasses revenues, that's a
deficit. And deficits have reached record highs in recent years with no
sign of letting up. Why?

[Speaker 2]
An aging population and the high price of health care are driving up
costs for programs like social Security and Medicare. Natural disasters,
pandemics and other unpredictable emergencies put pressure on an already
stretched federal budget. At the same time, tax revenue has remained
constant for the last 20 years and is projected to continue that trend
even as spending continues to outpace it.

[Speaker 3]
So to cover the deficit, the federal government borrows from
corporations, state and local governments, foreign governments, federal
trust funds and individual people like you. High interest rates make it
more expensive for everyone to borrow money, including the federal
government. New debt costs more and maturing debt may have to be
refinanced at higher rates.

[Speaker 2]
As for that debt, right now it's tens of trillions of dollars and it's
growing faster than the economy that supports it. That's an
unsustainable fiscal path. Getting off that path requires Congress to
make difficult policy decisions about spending, revenue and more.

[Speaker 4]
GAO's Annual Fiscal Health report includes a walkthrough of the key
considerations for developing the kind of long term fiscal plan that can
inform those decisions.

[Speaker 1]
Find out more about the nation's fiscal health at GAO.gov

[ End ]