CBO Estimates US Deficit to Reach Nearly $1 Trillion

The Congressional Budget Office [CBO] released on Monday the preliminary deficit numbers.

CBO estimates that the Treasury Department will report a deficit of about $953 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2009, $640 billion more than the deficit recorded through March 2008. That estimate of this year’s deficit to date includes outlays of about $290 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Although the Treasury has been recording most spending for the TARP on a cash basis, CBO believes that the budget should record the program’s transactions on a net-present-value basis adjusted for market risk. Using that approach, CBO estimates that outlays of $140 billion should be recorded for the TARP through March, which would yield an estimated deficit of about $803 billion for the first half of the year. [via CB Office]

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