President Obama was forced to concede today that the US deficit will soar to record levels this year as he unveiled a $3.8 trillion annual budget that faces a perilous passage on Capitol Hill and could decide the fate of his presidency.
Blaming the extraordinary levels of government debt on the profligacy of his predecessor George W. Bush, Mr Obama said that the deficit would reach nearly $1.6 trillion this year, far more than the White House predicted last year and a staggering level that is alienating voters.
Mr Obama, facing a difficult political landscape and an economy where one in ten Americans is still unemployed, sought to present a budget with dual priorities: bringing down the deficit while spending billions of additional dollars to create jobs.