Long-Term Budget Outlook: the Federal Debt is unsustainable after 2038

http://cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/attachments/44521-LTBO_0.pdf

"CBO projects that, under current law, debt held by the public would rise slightly relative to GDP in 2014 and then, because of smaller deficits, decrease to 68 percent of GDP by 2018. Around 2020, with deficits growing again, debt would begin to rise faster than GDP. By 2038, under the extended baseline, federal debt held by the public would reach 100 percent of GDP (see Table 1-2 on page 11)—nearly equal to the percentage just after World War II and almost triple the percentage in 2007— and would be on an upward path. That trajectory for federal debt would ultimately be unsustainable."