Friday afternoon bad news: Obama to raise 10-year deficit to $9 trillion

Obama to raise 10-year deficit to $9 trillion

The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.

The CBO was right after all,

The White House took heat for sticking with its $7.108 trillion forecast earlier this year after the Congressional Budget Office forecast that deficits between 2010 and 2019 would total $9.1 trillion.

And then,

Treasury markets have been worried all year about the mounting deficit. The United States relies on large foreign buyers such as China and Japan to cheaply finance its debt, and they may demand higher interest rates if they begin to doubt that the government can control its deficits.

Right before dumping the bad news, it was time to head out of town.

And

And but me no buts about how he inherited part of this mess from President Bush. He’s the President now, the decider. If he wanted, he could put the brakes on TARP (which is run out of the Treasury Department), which is the only recent Bush spending program he’s dealing with. All the rest — Cash for Clunkers, the GM and Chrysler bailouts, the bank bailouts, the Stimulus Bill, the Omnibus Spending Bill, and Obamacare (assuming it passes) — belong to him. He signed and/or authorized them. They’re his babies.

(Thanks to Nice Deb for the graphic)