Obama Deficits To Be Much Higher Than Expected

The White House has estimated that the Obama budget will produce deficits of about $6.9 trillion over 10 years. But a powerful congressional office that is due to file its budgetary estimate on Friday will report a uch larger deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office has warned the White House in advance of Friday's estimate that the deficit projections will outpace the White House estimate, perhaps by as much as 20%, Politico reports. Democrats expect that the CBO projections will add around $1.5 trillion more to the Obama deficit.

One of the things pushing up the deficit is a lowered baseline for economic performance over the next few years. In addition, some spending programs may be viewed as more costly than earlier anticipated.

"In 2014, at which point the White House projects a deficit of $570 billion, it’s now expected that CBO will show a number in excess of $700 billion," Politico reports. "Five years later, in 2019, Obama’s budget concedes that the deficit will have widened to $712 billion; Democrats expect CBO to put the number over $1 trillion."

Source: John Carney @ Business Insider