The White House on Monday projected that the U.S. federal government's budget deficit will reach around 1.33 trillion U.S. dollars in the 2012 fiscal year ending September 2012, fresh evidence of the mounting budgetary pressure facing the world's largest economy.
The estimate was equal to 8.5 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and was higher than the 1.1 trillion dollars predicted last month by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan budgetary and economic research agency for the Congress.
The White House forecast that the federal government's deficit will decline to 901 billion dollars in the 2013 fiscal year, or 5. 5 percent of the GDP, according to the administration's 2013 fiscal year budget proposal sent to the Congress on Monday.
The U.S. federal government's projected outlays in the 2012 fiscal year will top 3.796 trillion dollars, while its forecast revenue will reach 2.469 trillion dollars, revealed the budget plan.
The federal government's projected outlays in the 2013 fiscal year will stand at 3.803 trillion dollars, and its forecast revenue will reach 2.902 trillion dollars.
Speaking at Northern Virginia Community College in Virginia after the White House unveiled its new budget plan, U.S. President Barack Obama noted the administration sought to cut the deficit by 4 trillion dollars over the next decade in a bid to put the nation on a course to a level of deficits below 3 percent of GDP by the end of the decade.
However, Obama stressed that cutting the government's deficit should not hamper investment on key areas that were critical to the nation's sustainable growth.
The White House proposed new spending measures in the plan to foster short-term job creation and lay a solid ground for long- term growth, including 476 billion dollars for infrastructure projects over the next six years, 30 billion dollars to modernize schools and 30 billion dollars to help hire teachers, police and firefighters over the next decade.
(VietNamNet/Xinhuanet)
