Debt limit deal is in place, but budget deficit is still a multi-decade challenge for US government

By JOSH BOAK
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even with new spending restraints included in the congressional debt limit deal, the U.S. government’s deficits are still on course to keep climbing to record levels over the next few decades. The projections are a sign that the two-year truce between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy might be only a pause before a far more wrenching set of showdowns over the federal budget. Why will the debt likely keep rising? It is due to the growing costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says. But both Biden and McCarthy ruled out any Social Security and Medicare cuts before this round of budget negotiations really got going.