Obama Not on Track to Meet 2009 Deficit Reduction Pledge, Budget Review Shows

[waltky]

possum wonderin', don't bein' financially responsible s'posed to include gettin' the numbers right to begin with?...

White House Underestimated 2012 Deficit by $769.5B--or 138 Percent
February 13, 2012 - President Barack Obama released a budget today that estimates the federal deficit will drop to $901.4 billion in fiscal 2013, resulting in the first federal deficit of less than $1 trillion since Obama was elected in 2008. It also predicts the federal deficit will decline sharply in fiscal 2014, dropping all the way to $667.8 billion.

But the White House does not have a good record in estimating what the federal deficit will be in future years. In February 2009, Obama submitted his first budget to Congress. It boldly predicted that the federal deficit would decrease dramatically during Obama’s term, dropping from an estimated $1.841 trillion in fiscal 2009 to $557.4 billion in fiscal 2012.

However, in the fiscal 2013 budget that Obama submitted to Congress today, the White House is predicting that the federal deficit for fiscal 2012 will not be $557.4 billion after all. Instead, the White House says, it will be $1.3269 trillion. That means Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal missed on its fiscal 2012 deficit prediction by $769.5 billion--an error of 138 percent.

The fiscal 2013 budget Obama submitted to Congress today once again predicts dramatically declining deficits. It predicts that by fiscal 2014, the federal deficit will drop to $667.8 billion. If the White House misses that prediction by 138 percent, the fiscal 2014 deficit will actually be about $921.6 billion higher than $667.8 billion—coming in at $1.5894 trillion.

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Debt Has Climbed $4.47T Since Obama Released First Budget—Calling for ‘A New Era of Responsibility’
February 13, 2012 - The federal debt has increased by $4.47 trillion since President Barack Obama released his first federal budget on Feb. 26, 2009.

That budget was entitled, “A New Era of Responsibility.” On Feb. 26, 2009, as Obama released his budget for fiscal 2010, the national debt stood at $10.88 trillion (10,881,159,722,022.36). At the close of business on Feb. 9, 2012, the national debt stood at $15.36 trillion ($15,355,838,921,022.16). That represents an increase in the debt of $4.47 trillion ($4,474,679,198,999.80).

The $4.47-trillion increase in the debt since Obama released his first budget is more than the national debt increased from President George Washington through President George H. W. Bush, who left office on Jan. 20, 1993. At the end of fiscal 1993 (on Sept. 30, 1993, the national debt stood at $4.41 trillion ($4,411,488,883,139.38), according to the U.S. Treasury.

“Government has failed to fully confront the deep, systemic problems that year after year have only become a larger and larger drag on our economy,” Obama said in his first budget message in February 2009. “From the rising costs of health care to the state of our schools, from the need to revolutionize how we power our economy to our crumbling infrastructure, policymakers in Washington have chosen temporary fixes over lasting solutions.

“The time has come to usher in a new era—a new era of responsibility in which we act not only to save and create new jobs, but also to lay a new foundation of growth upon which we can renew the promise of America,” said Obama. “This Budget is a first step in that journey,” he said. “Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness,” Obama said in the last paragraph of that budget message.

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