White House predicts less growth in GDP
President Obama and the White House downgraded his own evaluation of the U.S. economy last week, issuing an updated budget that showed slower growth than he’d projected just five months ago — a striking acknowledgment of what he called economic “head winds.”
President Barack Obama meets with senior advisors in the Roosevelt Room. 2/16/09. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
In a report issued Friday afternoon, the White House said it expects gross domestic product to grow at a rate of 4.3 percent in 2012 and 2013, or down three-tenths and four-tenths of a point, respectively.
The downgrade extended through 2015, signaling a slower-than-expected recovery well into the next president’s term.
The updated budget also showed the federal government will run a deficit of $1.2 trillion this year, and will again exceed a trillion-dollar shortfall next year. If those projections come true, it would be the fifth straight year the government has run that deeply in the red — a level it had never reached until 2009.
Spending in 2012 is actually running at a slower pace than the White House predicted in February, but will still reach $1.2 trillion. The deficit for 2013 is now projected to be $991 billion, which is nearly 10 percent deeper than projected in February when Mr. Obama sent his budget to Congress.
