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The Associated Press FILE - In this May 24, 2017, file photo, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Budget Committee hearing on President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 federal budget.
WASHINGTON The White House said Friday that worsening tax revenues will cause the budget deficit to jump to $702 billion this year. That's a $99 billion spike from what was predicted less than two months ago.
The report from the Office of Management and Budget comes on the heels of a rival Congressional Budget Office analysis that scuttled White House claims that its May budget, if implemented to the letter, would balance the federal ledger within 10 years. The OMB report doesn't repeat that claim and instead provides just two years of updated projections.
The White House budget office also says the deficit for the 2018 budget year that starts on Oct. 1 will increase by $149 billion to $589 billion. But lawmakers are already working on spending bills that promise to boost that number even higher by adding to Trump's Pentagon proposal and ignoring many of Trump's cuts to domestic programs.
The White House kept the report to a bare-bones minimum and cast blame on "the failed policies of the previous administration." As usual Trump blames Obama. Trumps idea is to end entitlements to the sick and poor and give more money to the rich, thereby 'Making America Great Again'.
CBO says that Trump relied on far too optimistic predictions of economic growth and that Trump's rosy projections are the chief reason his budget doesn't balance as promised.
Trump's budget predicts that the U.S. economy will soon ramp up to annual growth in gross domestic product of 3 percent; CBO's long-term projections predict annual GDP growth averaging 1.9 percent.
