Obama Administration: Oops, Make That a $9 Trillion Deficit

I‘m pretty sure Obama “consistently said” the deficit might be $2 trillion more than his administration originally estimated, right?

The White House now expects the 10-year budget deficit to reach $9.05 trillion, roughly $2 trillion more than it estimated earlier in the year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of Management and Budget. Budget office director Peter Orszag pointed to a number of measures put in place to stem the pain of the economic downturn.

The increase in the estimate comes, according to Orszag, as a result of, “a deeper-than-expected recession, certain spending programs (such as unemployment insurance and food stamps) are projected to automatically increase and revenues are projected to automatically decline, compared to our previous projection.” Well, keep in mind the recession, which is now “deeper than expected,” would have been much, much worse if not for Obama. There’s a selling point. As an addendum to that bit of marketing genius, the Obama administration can now add Paul Krugman’s argument that, “Hey, $9 trillion ain’t really that bad,” which is based on the idea that the deeper-than-expected recession, which would have been deeper if not for Obama, will still produce plenty of growth to handle the deficit: