Sen. Conrad: Expect $1.6 trillion bigger deficit

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama said he was going to lower the federal deficit.

That won't be happening.

When the White House released its multi-year budget forecasts, Republican lawmakers, among other things, criticized them for understating future deficits.

Now add a Democratic senator from North Dakota to that group of skeptics.

U.S. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said on Thursday he expects federal deficit spending will be about $1.6 trillion greater over the next ten years than President Barack Obama's budget plan forecasts.

Obama submitted his budget outline to Congress last month which forecast almost $7 trillion in deficits through 2019, however a worsening economic picture is expected to make the budget outlook darker.

Conrad told reporters that the additional $1.6 trillion over the next decade was based on projections of the Democratic majority's budget committee staff.

The Congressional Budget Office is due to issue its revised forecasts for the deficit and economic outlook on Friday, taking into account Obama's budget proposal which included health care reform and other domestic programs such as curbing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding education.

Related post:

Sen. Kent Conrad attempting to explain himself out of his Countrywide mortgage mess

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