By Erik Wasson, The Hill, September 10, 2012
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Monday that the 2012 budget deficit through August stands at $1.17 trillion.
It estimated that $192 billion was added to the deficit in August, crossing the symbolically important trillion-dollar threshold. This is the fourth straight year that the deficit will exceed one trillion dollars, all under President Obama. The deficit in 2008 was $459 billion.
The deficit at 11 months into the fiscal year, which ends on Oct. 1, is about $70 billion less than at this point in fiscal 2011. Revenue increases account for the difference, with incoming revenue increasing 6 percent and spending increasing 2 percent despite the efforts of Congress to reduce it.
So far this year, revenues have increased $126 billion, the CBO estimated, while spending has increased by $57 billion.
The report comes as the GOP has made the budget deficit a central issue in the 2012 election campaign.
GOP candidate Mitt Romney has vowed to balance the budget by the end of his second term, but has not provided the full details of how he would do this while cutting taxes.
Obama has put forth his own deficit plan, which by White House math would cut $4 trillion from deficits using a combination of taxes and spending cuts. The White House math includes cutting war funds that are not being spent anyway, $1 trillion in cuts from a 2011 deal with Congress and interest savings, however.
thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/248479-cbo-d...llion
#obamanomics #osgottago #obamafail
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