London, May 29: In the midst of negotiating a steep tax cuts package, the US government shelved a report that showed the United States faces future federal budget deficits of more than 44.2 trillion dollars, a British business daily said today. US President George W Bush's administration chose to keep the findings - commissioned by then-treasury secretary Paul O'Neill - out of the 2004 annual budget report published in february, said the report.
The newspaper described the study as "the most comprehensive assessment of how the US government is at risk of being overwhelmed by the 'baby boom' generation's future healthcare and retirement costs."
It hinted that the decision not to publish the report may have been because the White House was campaigning for a massive tax-cut package that critics claim will expand future deficits. The study, according to the same source, said that sharp tax increases, massive spending cuts or both are unavoidable if the US is to meet benefit promises to future generations.
"It estimates that closing the gap would require the equivalent of an immediate and permanent 66 per cent across-the-board income tax increase," reported the daily. "The study was being circulated as an independent working paper among Washington think-tanks as Bush yesterday signed into law a 10-year, 350-billion-dollar tax-cut package he welcomed as a victory for hard-working Americans and the economy," the newspaper said. Bureau Report