White House: Deficit Will Climb This Year

The White House said yesterday it expects the budget deficit to climb above $400 billion this year. The announcement suggests that last year's lower deficit ($319 billion) was temporary, and that President Bush will have difficulty keeping his promise to cut the deficit in half by 2009. White House deputy budget director Joel Kaplan said the shortfall would climb largely because of relief efforts tied to Hurricane Katrina. According to a report in the New York Times, Democrats are expected to use the new deficit forecast to attack Republican efforts to cut social-program spending and extend tax cuts that benefit high-income families.