The White House on Wednesday slashed its forecast for the fiscal 2005 budget deficit by nearly $100 billion after the government raked in unexpectedly large tax revenues in recent months. The Bush administration projected a deficit of $333 billion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to the Office of Management and Budget's "midsession" update, Reuters reported. U.S. President George W. Bush, at a meeting with his Cabinet, hailed the numbers and said he could cut the deficit gap in half sooner than his earlier promise of 2009. "I told the Congress and told the country we'd cut the deficit in half by 2009," Bush told reporters during the meeting. "We're ahead of projections now. These numbers indicate that we're going to cut the deficit in half faster than the year 2009 so long as Congress holds the line on spending," he added. The revised budget gap was sharply narrower than the $427 billion estimate the Bush administration gave in February with the release of its proposed budget. It was also down from 2004's deficit of $412 billion, which was a record high. --More 1949 Local Time 1649 GMT
