in terms of the budget legacy passed to his successor president obama, cbo forecast in january 2009 that the deficit that year would be $1.2 trillion, assuming the continuation of bush policies. from a policy perspective, the long-term deficit legacy depended significantly on whether the bush tax cuts were allowed to expire in 2010 as initially legislated. president obama extended the bush tax cuts entirely through the end of 2012 as part of the 2010 tax relief act, then extended them for the bottom 99% of income earners indefinitely thereafter as part of the fiscal cliff resolution, roughly 80% of the dollar value of the cuts.