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Friday, Jan 4, 2013 11:00 PM UTC

CBO: ‘Cliff’ deal leaves big deficits in place

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Topics: From the Wires,

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nonpartisan scorekeeper for Congress says the legislation passed earlier this week to avert the “fiscal cliff” could still leave in place deficits averaging more than $900 billion a year over the coming decade if Congress fails to follow its tax increases up with spending cuts.

The Congressional Budget Office also says the measure should reduce the risk of recession this year by not slamming the economy with a huge tax increase.

The post cites a CBO study from August predicting a $10 trillion deficit over the next 10 years if Congress simply followed existing tax and spending policies instead of following the laws that threatened a cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.

The fiscal cliff law would cut $700 billion to $800 billion, CBO said.

More By Andrew Taylor.

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