The Congressional Budget Office on Friday reported that the federal government ran a $1.1 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2012, making it official that President Obama broke his promise to cut the deficit in half within his first term in office.

On Feb. 23, 2009 (a month into his presidency) Obama convened a “fiscal responsibility summit” in the White House, and declared, “[T]oday, I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office. Now, this will not be easy. It will require us to make difficult decisions and face challenges we’ve long neglected. But I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay — and that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control.”