The U.S. Fiscal imbalance – the excess of that we expect to spend, including repayment of our debt, over what government expects to receive in revenue – is large and growing. Committed to bring attention to his increasing danger, the Cato Institute inaugurated a significant project to investigate and document the federal government’s current financial position.

U.S. Fiscal Imbalance contains the project’s two major reports: Fiscal Imbalance: A Primer, covering key principles necessary for understanding the true state of government financial health, and U.S. Fiscal Imbalance over Time: This Time Is Different, illustrating how the nation’s fiscal situation has been continually deteriorating since the mid‐​1960s. It is our goal – and Cato’s ongoing commitment – that these reports help energize academic, business, financial, and political leaders to take effective, meaningful action to limit the federal government’s unsustainable spending.