The U.S. federal government has already run up a record deficit of $485.2 billion in just the first three months of the current budget year, AP quoted the Treasury Department as saying today. The deficit is on track to surpass $1 trillion for all of fiscal 2009 and some economists believe it could go much higher. The deficit for December totaled $83.6 billion, a sharp deterioration from a year ago when the government managed a surplus of $48.3 billion. Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a slightly lower deficit of $83 billion. All the red ink is occurring because of the massive spending on the $700 billion financial rescue program and a prolonged recession which has depressed tax revenues. The imbalance from October through December is the highest on record for a first quarter and surpasses the mark for a full budget year of $454.8 billion set last year. The Congressional Budget Office last week projected that the deficit for this fiscal year will hit $1.2 trillion. But that projection does not include any of the costs from the economic stimulus program that President-elect Barack Obama is hoping Congress will pass in the next few weeks in an effort to keep the current recession from deepening. The cost of Obama's two-year program is expected to be around $800 billion.
