AlQa'dah 19, 1433, Oct 5, 2012, SPA -- A new estimate puts the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth consecutive year of trillion-dollar deficits under President Barack Obama. The result was a $207 billion improvement from the 2011 fiscal-year deficit of $1.3 trillion. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Friday that the 2012 budget deficit was 7 percent of the size of the economy, an unsustainably high level. While the figure is lower than the first three years of Obama's presidency, it is higher than any other year since 1947. The Obama administration will release the official deficit figure in mid-October, but it should be close to the CBO estimate, which showed the government borrowed 31 cents for every dollar it spent. The CBO figures, while expected, add ammunition to the heated presidential campaign, in which Obama's handling of the economy and the long-term budget are main topics. Obama inherited an economy in recession and annual budget deficits in excess of $1 trillion. He pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, but deficits have remained at extremely high levels, including a record $1.4 trillion deficit in 2009 and deficits of $1.3 trillion in each of the past two years.
