More budget information

In their recent report predicting a significant decline in the estimated budget deficit for this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) also made a couple of scary forecasts:

• If the administration's tax cuts are not rolled back on their sunset date of 2011, the projected deficit could grow from $281 billion to $1.5 trillion.
• Mandatory spending (such as Medicare, Social Security) is now 8% of our GDP. In 2030 it could grow to 12-17% of GDP.