The federal deficit for fiscal year 2003 was a record deficit of $375 billion. That in turn broke the previous record of $290 billion, which was reached under the first President Bush in 1992.
The Deficit for the year ended Sept 30, 2009 was $1.42 trillion which is triple the largest deficit of any prior year. It is about 10% of GDP which is the largest since 1945.
If constant dollars are used then the deficit for 1992 is about 350 billion.
The federal budget deficit was $292 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2010, CBO estimates, about $11 billion greater than the shortfall recorded through November of last year. In the first two months of fiscal year 2009, the federal government recorded $84 billion in spending for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and for payments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but recorded only $2 billion for those purposes so far this year. Excluding spending for the TARP, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the deficit during the first two months of fiscal year 2010 was over $90 billion greater than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year.
By CBO’s estimate, spending for the first two months of fiscal year 2010 totaled $559 billion, down $31 billion (or 5 percent) from last year. Excluding outlays for the TARP and net cash infusions for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, however, spending in 2010 rose by $51 billion (or 10 percent).
The Congressional Budget Office publishes monthly reports on the united states deficit
Outlays for Social Security benefits, Medicaid, and Medicare were all up by over 10 percent from last year. Social Security benefits rose by $11 billion (or 10 percent). The number of recipients grew as the first of the baby boomers begin to collect benefits; in addition, the average benefit has risen significantly because of the large cost-of-living increase (5.8 percent) that was effective in January 2009.
FURTHER READING
Previous look at US federal budgets past, present and future
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