U.S. $292 billion in the hole for fiscal 2013, as Obama says 'trust me'

Remember when President Obama promised he would cut the deficit in half during his first term in office? He must have meant he would double it.

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit reached $292 billion, and we’re just two months into fiscal 2013. This figure is $57 billion more than the deficit reached during the same period last year. Like I said, we’re going the wrong way.

If one were to extend this number out for 12 months, it would yield a deficit for 2013 of $1.752 trillion. Of course, this wouldn’t necessarily be an accurate figure as revenue tends to rise and fall throughout the year. It does, however, confirm an earlier CBO estimate that the annual deficit would reach more that $1 trillion for the fifth year in a row under the Obama administration.

Republican members of Congress are not amused.

“Deficit totals are higher than last year and confirm predictions for yet another trillion-dollar deficit,” said Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. “The proposed solution from Secretary Geithner is to increases taxes $1.6 trillion and increase spending growth by $1.2 trillion. In other words, hike taxes to pay for new spending. The result is adding $8.6 trillion in new debt over 10 years, instead of $9 trillion.”

The president’s proposal for dealing with the so-called “fiscal cliff” included a tax hike for those he calls the wealthy together with a request to “trust him” to reduce expenses.

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