GOP finds grist for campaigns in projections of record deficits
The federal budget deficit, which hit a record $1.4 trillion last year, will exceed that figure this year and again in 2011, the White House predicted Friday, providing fresh ammunition to Republicans who are hammering President Obama for all the red ink as they campaign to regain control of Congress in November.</br></br>The latest forecast from the White House budget office shows the deficit rising to $1.47 trillion this year, forcing the government to borrow 41 cents of every dollar it spends. Contrary to official projections, the budget gap will not begin to narrow much in 2011, because of an unexpectedly big drop in tax receipts.</br></br>White House budget director Peter Orszag said in a conference call with reporters that Obama is still on track to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. But the forecast provides no relief from the gloomy outlook that has been forcing Obama to consider deeper cuts to defense and non-security programs as well as additional tax increases. This week, the administration also repeated its intention to let tax cuts for the wealthy expire in January.</br></br>With polls showing high public anxiety over the economy and government borrowing, Republicans wasted no time blasting the new forecast. They accused Obama and congressional Democrats of orchestrating a government expansion that threatens to push the nation toward a European-style debt crisis while failing to create jobs.</br></br>"For more than a year and a half, the president and his Democrat allies on Capitol Hill have pushed an anti-business, anti-jobs agenda on the American people while adding trillions to the debt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement. "It's time for a new approach, one that listens to the American people rather than forcing Washington-based mandates."