WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior congressional aide says the latest estimates put this year’s federal budget deficit at $1.35 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office figures confirm the massive problem facing President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies just days before his Feb. 1 budget submission. The White House says Obama will propose freezing domestic agency budgets, though the savings would barely make a dent.
The deficit would slide to $480 billion by 2015, CBO says, but only if tax cuts on income, investments and large estates are allowed to expire at the end of this year. Most budget experts see deficits as far higher once tax cuts and other policies are factored in.
The 2010 deficit figure is in line with previous estimates.
