Monday May 11, 03:52 PM
Obama deficit forecasts rise by nearly 90 billion dlrs
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House Monday raised its 2009 and 2010 deficit forecasts each by nearly 90 billion dollars, reflecting the cost of fighting the economic crisis, in a finalized 3.6 trillion dollar budget.
The administration released new projections to the federal government budget for the fiscal year 2010 beginning in October, a week after announcing 17 billion dollars in deficit-reducing cuts to 121 government programs.
Federal government spending for 2010 will increase to 3.591 trillion dollars with revenue estimated at 2.333 trillion dollars, resulting in a deficit of 1.258 trillion dollars, the new tables of data show.
The updated data also showed a 3.998 trillion dollar budget for 2009 with a deficit of 1.841 trillion dollars, also about 90 billion dollars higher than previously estimated.
Original estimates had foreseen a 1.750-trillion-dollar deficit in fiscal 2009, which ends September 30, then a decrease to 1.171 trillion dollars in 2010.
White House budget chief Peter Orszag said the Office of Management and Budget "projects that the deficit will be about 90 billion dollars higher in FY 2009 and also in 2010 than it did in February.
"The deficits in these years, now projected to be 12.9 percent and 8.5 percent of GDP (gross domestic product), respectively, are driven in large part by the economic crisis inherited by this administration," Orszag wrote on his blog.
An Obama administration official said the larger-than-originally forecast deficit was the result of lower-than-expected federal tax revenues, and higher costs for programs like unemployment insurance amid rising jobless figures.
The costs of the government bailout of the financial industry and troubled automobile industries were also a factor, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Though the new data contained new forecasts, the budget, first revealed in February, remained on the same broad outlines, Orszag said.
"The budget continues to call for significant and long overdue investments in education, health care reform, and clean energy, while cutting the deficit in half over four years and providing a tax cut to 95 percent of working Americans."
The Obama budget contains the president's sweeping attempt to transform American economic policy, healthcare and an attempt to introduce a cap-and-trade system to fight global warming.
Republicans accuse the president of doing too little to slash the deficit and warn the administration will pile up huge debts on future generations of Americans.
Obama has vowed to cut the gaping budget deficit that he inherited from the Bush administration in half by the end of his mandate in 2013, warning that failure to do so could call the "American Dream" into question.
But he had said that the depths of the economic crisis mean that high government spending is vital to pulling the country out of recession, after passing an 787 billion dollar economic stimulus plan.
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