The CBO's June Report Proves Washington Is Out of Control

What Did the CBO Actually Report?

The Congressional Budget Office released its latest budget outlook this week, and the numbers should alarm every taxpayer who expects Washington to live within its means. The report projects a federal deficit of roughly $2.1 trillion for fiscal year 2026, with deficits remaining above $2 trillion for the rest of the decade under current law.

The national debt now sits above $37 trillion, according to Treasury Department figures posted in late May. That figure has more than doubled since 2016, when total federal debt was approximately $19.2 trillion. The acceleration is not the result of a single crisis. It is the accumulation of routine overspending dressed up as emergency relief.

CBO's baseline assumes no new tax cuts and no major wars. Even under that optimistic scenario, debt held by the public rises toward 120 percent of gross domestic product within ten years. That level puts the United States in the company of nations that have historically faced debt crises, currency devaluations, or both.

And the projections could worsen quickly. CBO scores legislation under static assumptions that rarely capture the true cost of new programs. When politicians find ways to game the scoring window, the real deficits arrive larger and sooner than advertised. June 2026 is the right moment to stop pretending otherwise.

Interest Is Eating the Budget Alive

Interest payments on the national debt are now the fastest growing major category of federal spending, outpacing both defense and Medicare growth in percentage terms. CBO expects net interest to exceed $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2026, which means Washington will spend more on debt service than on national defense.

In fiscal year 2021, net interest was roughly $392 billion. Five years later, the cost has nearly tripled. Higher interest rates explain part of the jump, but the larger driver is the debt itself. When you borrow $1 trillion here and $2 trillion there, eventually the carrying cost overwhelms every other priority.

This is money that produces no roads, no soldiers, no cures. It is a transfer from American workers to creditors, including foreign central banks and domestic bondholders. Every dollar sent to a bondholder is a dollar that cannot fund a veteran's hospital or a border patrol agent's salary.

The Federal Reserve has hinted at possible rate cuts later this year, but the relief would be temporary. Most of the debt is short-term or medium-term, which means it refinances at prevailing rates. A single percentage point increase in average borrowing costs adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the ten-year deficit. Congress cannot outrun compound interest.

Where the Waste Hides

The Government Accountability Office has documented tens of billions of dollars in improper payments, duplicative programs, and outdated federal IT systems that should have been modernized decades ago. These findings do not require new taxes to fix. They require politicians willing to cancel programs that fail and fire contractors that underdeliver.

GAO's most recent annual report identified 98 policy areas where federal programs overlap or duplicate one another. That is 98 opportunities to consolidate, eliminate, or return authority to the states. Instead, Congress adds new programs every session and rarely sunsets the old ones.

Improper payments alone cost taxpayers roughly $236 billion in fiscal year 2023, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That is not fraud in every case. Some of it is clerical error. But $236 billion in error is a management failure that no private board would tolerate.

Then there is the Pentagon, which has failed its seventh consecutive audit and cannot account for trillions of dollars in assets. The Department of Defense budget exceeds $850 billion annually, yet auditors still cannot produce a clean opinion. Accountability is not a partisan demand. It is a minimal expectation when soldiers and taxpayers are footing the bill.

The Only Honest Response Is Austerity

Congress should freeze discretionary spending, rescind the most wasteful earmarks, and require a clean vote on every expiring program before any new borrowing is authorized. These steps would not balance the budget overnight, but they would signal that lawmakers finally understand the difference between necessary spending and political favors.

Austerity is treated as a dirty word in Washington. It should not be. For families and businesses, living within your means is called responsibility. For states, balanced budget requirements are normal. Only the federal government pretends that borrowed money is free and that the bill will never come due.

The debt ceiling will return later this year, and both parties will posture. Republicans will demand cuts. Democrats will demand tax increases. Neither side will admit that the real problem is a political culture that treats every program as sacred and every constituency as entitled. Real leadership means telling voters no.

The Alamo Post was founded this year to argue for limited government and fiscal sanity. That mission requires repeating an uncomfortable truth. Washington does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. And the CBO's June report is the latest proof that time is running out.