Obama Administration Set to Announce Second Year of $1.3 Trillion Deficit

Unexpected?

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will announce it has exceeded the $1 trillion mark in the federal deficit -- predicted by Congress' research arm last week as $1.29 trillion -- for the second straight year as it projects an even larger gap between revenues and spending for fiscal year 2011.

The Congressional Budget Office last week announced the deficit for the 2010 budget year that ended Sept. 30 was $1.29 trillion. That's down by $125 billion from the $1.4 trillion in 2009 -- the highest deficit on record. It attributed money recovered from the Troubled Asset Relief Program for the decrease.

The Obama administration is also projecting that the deficit for the 2011 budget year, which began on Oct. 1, will climb to $1.4 trillion. Over the next decade, it will total $8.47 trillion.

Deficits of that size will constrain the administration's agenda over the next two years and will certainly be an issue in the 2012 presidential race.