The Treasury Department said today that the budget deficit soared to $192.3 billion in March and is nearing $1 trillion just halfway through the budget year, largely because of mounting costs of the financial bailout and recession, according to AP. Last month's deficit, a record for March, was significantly higher than the $150 billion that economists expected. The deficit already totals $956.8 billion for the first six months of the budget year, also a record for that period. The Obama administration projects the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.75 trillion. A deficit at that level would nearly quadruple the previous yearly record of $454.8 billion set last year. The March deficit was four times the size of the imbalance in the same month last year. Almost $300 billion provided to the nation's banks and other companies to cope with the most severe financial crisis in seven decades has pushed government spending higher.
