The nation’s fiscal situation is much worse today than when President Obama first took office. Public debt borrowed in credit markets stands at 73.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a level last seen after World War II. And yet, the news and many lawmakers will tout a very different story.

At $514 billion for 2014, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Budget and Economic Outlook released today projects a slight improvement in the deficit from the previous year. No doubt, this will reinforce Washington’s shoulder-shrugging attitude towards the nation’s worsening fiscal situation.

Public debt doubled since the Great Recession, as the deficit exceeded $1 trillion every year during President Obama’s entire first term. The deficit looks better only when compared to such excessively high deficit levels. Moreover, this year’s improvement is a misleading short-term phenomenon.

The nation’s spending trajectory will only get worse the longer it remains on its fiscal collision course. Spending on the major entitlements—Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare—is set to explode over the next few decades. This CBO report offers merely a glimpse of the nation’s dire fiscal future, showing deficits rising back up to trillion dollar levels well before the end of the decade.

-Romina Boccia - Heritage.org