Government financial forecasts and the media that repeats them

I just read that the administration is considering a tax on banks that will recover a certain sum over10 years.  This is the same kind of thinking that 10 years ago had the media reporting that the government expected a budget surplus of $1 trillion over the period to now. 
These clowns cannot forecast with any degree of accuracy one year forward and they are telling us how it will be in 10 years.  And the media just repeats the numbers with never a challenge.