Obama predicts $1.3T deficit

Published 12:00 am Saturday, February 11, 2012

WASHINGTON — The White House on Friday confirmed a report that President Barack Obama’s new budget predicts a $1.3 trillion deficit for the ongoing fiscal year. The deficit would drop to $901 billion next year under the administration’s tax and spending policies.

In his budget submission on Monday the president will also repeat his call to raise the top income tax rate for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families earning $250,000 from 35 percent to 39.6 percent as part of $1.5 trillion in tax hikes over the coming decade. That proposal alone raises almost $900 billion over the coming decade.

The election-year document is sure to get a brushoff from Republicans controlling the House. The White House says that Monday’s budget will contain many items from a September submission to a failed congressional deficit “supercommittee,” which deadlocked over tax increases and how much to cut popular benefit programs like Medicare.