{"id":17753,"date":"2017-01-18T08:36:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T13:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=17753"},"modified":"2017-01-18T08:36:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T13:36:21","slug":"gao-issues-first-annual-report-on-the-federal-governments-fiscal-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2017\/01\/18\/gao-issues-first-annual-report-on-the-federal-governments-fiscal-health\/","title":{"rendered":"GAO ISSUES FIRST ANNUAL REPORT ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S FISCAL HEALTH"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/span><\/strong> (January 17, 2017) \u2013 Beginning an effort to examine the nation\u2019s fiscal heath at the start of each year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued its first annual outlook on the nation\u2019s fiscal future. The work warns of mounting debt and other challenges, urges prompt action to address those challenges, and is designed to help inform Congress and the incoming administration. \u00a0GAO encourages the development of a long-term plan that will address levels of federal spending and investments and the options to obtain needed resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remain deeply concerned about our government\u2019s unsustainable long-term fiscal path,\u201d said Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO. \u201cOur new report provides a frank assessment of the fiscal problems confronting the nation.\u00a0 Health care expenditures and net interest are now the main drivers of growing federal spending, and without policy changes, the debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to reach historic levels within 15-25 years,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Congress and incoming Administration face serious economic, security, and social challenges that will require difficult policy choices in the short term about the level of federal spending and investments as well as ways to obtain needed resources. They also face a government heavily leveraged in debt by historic norms and on an unsustainable long-term path.\u00a0 Decisions over the near term to enhance economic growth and address national policies need to be accompanied by a fiscal plan to put the national government on a more long-term sustainable path. I hope GAO\u2019s findings will serve to sound the alarm and spur a longer-term approach to help turn things around,\u201d Dodaro added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Available on GAO\u2019s website, the new report\u2014<\/span>The Nation\u2019s Fiscal Health: Action Is Needed to Address the Federal Government\u2019s Fiscal Future<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/em>\u2014discusses significant changes to the nation\u2019s fiscal condition in fiscal year 2016, long-term simulations of the federal debt, and fiscal risks placing additional pressure on the federal budget. GAO also identifies steps that federal agencies can take to improve things, such as reducing improper payments; closing the tax gap; eliminating duplication, overlap, and fragmentation in federal programs; and producing better information on program and fiscal operations to strengthen decision-making.<\/span><\/p>\n

GAO\u2019s fiscal health report draws on the just-issued Financial Report of the U.S. Government and GAO\u2019s audit of the government\u2019s consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2016 and 2015. For more information, contact Chuck Young, Managing Director of GAO Public Affairs, at <\/span>youngc1@gao.gov<\/span><\/a> or 202-512-4800.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, D.C. (January 17, 2017) \u2013 Beginning an effort to examine the nation\u2019s fiscal heath at the start of each year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today issued its first annual outlook on the nation\u2019s fiscal future. The work warns of mounting debt and other challenges, urges prompt action to address those challenges, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17754,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17753\/revisions\/17754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}