双语新闻：美国仍存在赤字问题

2014-09-11 14:38:09来源：可可英语

　　The Congressional Budget Office recently put outnew budget projections and commentators havehad a series of feel-good moments about it. Debt isunder control, they say. Projections of Medicarecosts continue to fall, they point out. The CBO’sestimates of future interest rates, and hence interestpayments, have come down as well, they echo.Amidst all of the congratulations, it is worth pointingout two facts that might give one pause in claiming“victory” in the deficit wars.

　　美国国会预算办公室(Congressional Budget Office)最近公布了新的预算估算报告。这份报告已经让评论人士迎来了一系列感觉良好的时刻。他们表示，债务已经得到控制。他们指出，联邦医疗保险(Medicare)的预期成本将继续下降。他们还宣称，根据国会预算办公室的估算，未来的利率水平也将下降，利息支出因而将减少。在一片欢呼雀跃声中，值得指出的是，有两个事实可能会延缓他们宣布赢得这场赤字战争“胜利”的时间。

　　First, the overall debt level is already high relative to historical norms. At its current level of74%, the ratio of federal debt-to-GDP is at its highest ever, except for seven years aroundWorld War II. At that time, the debt ratio peaked at 106% at the end of the war and then fellrapidly, due to low interest rates, inflation, and a generation’s worth of strong economicgrowth that we can only hope to see again anytime soon.

　　首先，和历史正常水平相比，美国政府的债务总额仍处于高位。目前，联邦政府债务占美国GDP的74%，除了二战前后的7年，这是该比率有史以来的最高水平。二战结束时，美国的政府债务占GDP的比率为106%，但随后快速下降，原因是低利率、低通胀以及维持了二三十年的强劲经济增长。如今我们只能盼望着这样的经济发展势头能在短时间内再次出现。

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