FY 2009 Totals

source

Budget Deficit FY 2009

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, which began in October, the total deficit hit $1.09 trillion.

In the first nine months of 2008, the United States government was $285.9 billion in debt. For all of fiscal 2008, the government racked up a $454.8 billion shortfall...

By the end of fiscal 2009, the government expects to be in debt by $1.84 trillion. The Treasury said it expects that its expenditures to approach $4 trillion while its income will only be $2.16 trillion.

For fiscal 2010, Treasury said it expects to have a budget deficit of $1.26 trillion, with $3.59 trillion in expenses and a slightly more robust $2.33 trillion in receipts.

read the article

Obama's Budget Deficits

According to the Congressional Budget Office, President Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over the next 10 years. The CBO says that is $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted. Economists say that amount is "unsustainable." Unsustainable? What does that mean? What is the end result of continuing down this path? Meanwhile, politicians in Washington wail and gnash their teeth over AIG bonuses but give no thought to spending money on things we don't need with money we don't have.

read the CBO report

Obama's Budget Hypocrisy

In January 2009: Congressional Budget Office projects
FY2009 budget deficit $1,186 billion
FY2013 budget deficit $257 billion

In February 2009: Office of Management and Budget projects
FY2009 budget deficit $1,750 billion
FY2013 budget deficit $533 billion

Obama pushes the package of a $787 Billion "Stimulus" Bill

source CBO and OMB

My thoughts: Wow. The FY 2009 deficit will be the same size as the FY2000 budget. Obama has the audacity to lecture the country on "fiscal responsibility." Obama needs to step away from the Kool-Aid now.

Obama to Cut Budget Deficit in Half

President Barack Obama wants to slash America's ballooning deficit in half by 2013 by cutting spending on the Iraq war, eliminating wasteful public programs and raising taxes on the wealthy, an administration official said Saturday.

"The deficit this administration inherited was $1.3 trillion or 9.2 percent of GDP. By 2013, the end of the president's first term, the budget cuts the deficit to $533 billion or 3.0 percent of GDP," the official said on condition of anonymity.

read the CNN story

My thoughts: This is dishonest at best. FY 2008 the deficit was $455. The FY 2009 began October 1, 2008. It is Bush's budget in the sense that he proposed it, but the recently passed $787 billion that will effective balloon the budget to $1.3 trillion belongs on Obama's tab. If you look back at the Bush estimates, Bush was projecting a surplus by 2013. So a $533 deficit is hardly a victory. In addition the actually numbers will be closer to $2.0 trillion than to $1.3 trillion.

A Return to Budget Surpluses?

President Bush, in proposing a fiscal 2009 budget with a near-record deficit, insisted the government will run a surplus by 2012. But that outlook is based on scenarios considered unlikely by budget experts, congressional Democrats and even some Republicans.President Bush, in proposing a fiscal 2009 budget with a near-record deficit, insisted the government will run a surplus by 2012. But that outlook is based on scenarios considered unlikely by budget experts, congressional Democrats and even some Republicans.

War spending would have to drop to a fraction of its current level. Congress would have to make steep cuts in a raft of domestic programs, while cracking down on the growth of Medicare and Medicaid. And the economy, now slowing sharply, would have to rebound quickly to ensure that tax receipts cover an annual government tab topping $3 trillion.

Mr. Bush, in sending his budget to Congress, said the government would run deficits of $410 billion in 2008 and $407 billion in 2009, but post surpluses of $48 billion in 2012 and $29 billion in 2013. "Our formula for achieving a balanced budget is simple: Create the conditions for economic growth, keep taxes low, and spend taxpayer dollars wisely or not at all," he said...

Administration officials yesterday dismissed criticism that a balanced budget isn't credible. "Budgets are, frankly, one-year documents," White House Budget Director Jim Nussle said. "We project out five years, but they're one-year documents and they project what we believe is the path in order to get back to balance."

read the WSJ article

The economy is not growing fast, taxes are not low and tax money is not being spent wisely. So the three conditions necessary to achieve a balanced budget are not being met. Don't expect to ever see a balanced budget.

Federal Budget FY 2009: Numbers

Receipts: $2.700 trillion
Outlays: $3.107 trillion
Deficit: -$407 billion
Projected GDP: $15.027 trillion
Deficit as % of GDP: 2.7%
Discretionary spending: $1.212 trillion
Mandatory spending: $1.636 trillion
Interest: $260 billion

read the WSJ coverage

Federal Budget FY 2009: Charts

Federal Budget FY 2009: $3 Trillion

On Monday, the president will unveil a $3 trillion-plus budget request for his final year, which is likely to show a deficit of more than $400 billion...

When Mr. Bush took the oath of office in 2001, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected $5.6 trillion in federal budget surpluses through 2011. Through most of his tenure, the president managed to have his guns, butter and tax cuts without creating enormous budget deficits, at least as measured by their share of GDP. One reason was a surprise increase in federal tax receipts from corporations over the last couple of years. Now those revenues have flattened out and the economy is teetering on the edge of recession...

Mr. Bush and Congress, meanwhile, increased federal spending by 25% between 2001 and 2007, adjusted for inflation, according to Brian Riedl of the conservative Heritage Foundation. By Sept. 30, the U.S. will have spent almost $800 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A new Medicare prescription-drug benefit for seniors costs almost $80 billion a year. Mr. Bush's signature tax cuts, in 2001 and 2003, sapped tax receipts and sliced the projected budget surplus by about $1.7 trillion through 2011, according to the CBO.

read the WSJ article

Bush ran as a fiscal conservative.