Looking At The Causes Of The 2009 US Deficit

Source: AEI

From "A Peek Inside the Deficit" by Veronique de Rugy Tuesday, October 20, 2009, The Journal of the American Enterprise Institue:

Yes, the recession led to a shortfall in tax revenue, but the deficit is mostly a product of enormous amounts of government spending.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the United States’ deficit for fiscal 2009, which runs from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009, was about $1.4 trillion. A mere 3.2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, the deficit was a whopping 9.9 percent of GDP by the end of fiscal 2009. This is a 209 percent increase, $943 billion of additional deficit. It is even a 207 percent increase over the CBO’s September 2008 projections for the fiscal 2009 deficit.