This is really out of control … how do you ever recover from that kind of deficit? Hard times are ahead in the U.S., the only question being how long can the government postpone the inevitable. This report at Marketwatch:
The U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.3 trillion in 2010, congressional budget analysts estimated Tuesday, in a fresh piece of grim news for President Barack Obama.
The estimate from the Congressional Budget Office assumes current laws and policies remain unchanged.
Economic growth will also probably be “muted” for the next few years, the CBO said in its budget outlook for 2010.
The CBO’s estimates come about a week before Obama transmits his fiscal 2011 budget to Congress, on Feb. 1. Obama is under mounting pressure to cut the deficit but also to create jobs, in the wake of last week’s victory in a special Senate election in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown.
In his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night, Obama is expected to call for a three-year freeze in spending for a portion of the federal budget in a first step toward reining in the deficit.
The federal government recorded a staggering deficit of $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2009 — more than three times as much as in 2008.
The government has reported a consistent flow of red ink in the past several months. In December, the federal government ran a budget deficit of $91.8 billion, marking the 15th consecutive month in which outlays exceeded receipts…
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