The federal budget appears to be on an “unsustainable path” while the the country’s fiscal status “has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the recession and the financial crisis,” Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday.
The weak economy has pushed the deficit higher, but the “deficit should narrow over the next few years,” Bernanke told the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, according to a prepared text of his remarks that was released by the Fed.
He said the panel should try to “put us on a path to fiscal sustainability” by “bringing spending, excluding interest payments, roughly into line with revenues.”
