Abstract
In August 2009 the Congressional Budget Office warned that the budget was on an unsustainable path. Preventing federal debt from growing faster than the economy over the long-run requires large increases in revenues and/or decreases in spending. We explore, using the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Model, whether incremental reforms of the current tax system could raise enough revenue to reduce the deficit to a sustainable level over the last five years of the current 10-year budget window. We conclude that feasible tax increases within the current tax structure cannot generate sufficient revenues to bring federal budget deficits under control.