In ONE DAY, 2005 deficit revised upward by $59 billion ($368B to $427B)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Yesterday, CNN projected deficit amount as $368 billion in 2005:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1526484&mesg_id=1526484

Today, MSNBC reports it as $427 billion:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6862777/

White House: 2005 deficit will hit $427 billion
Official: Still on track to halve budget shortfall by 2009

WASHINGTON - The White House will project that this year’s federal deficit will hit $427 billion, a senior administration official said Tuesday, a record partly driven by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The official, among three who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the estimate was a conservative one that assumed some higher spending than other analysts use. Last February, the White House projected that the 2004 shortfall would hit $521 billion, only to see it come in at $412 billion.

The official said the figure represented progress because it would be smaller than last year’s record $412 billion shortfall when compared to the size of the growing U.S. economy. That ratio is a key measure of the deficit’s potency.

“Our projections will show we remain on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009,” one of President Bush’s budget goals, the official told reporters.

[SoCalifer]

1. :

[izzie]

2. Ever watch the figures on the war and national debt site?

They go faster than the gas meter.

[Zenlitened]

3. Oh, c'mon! Who hasn't done that before?

You sit down to balance your checkbook, and find it's off by a couple of billion. Happens to everyone! :crazy:

[Harlequin]

4. Budget Revisions

The NYT-dot-come headline of yesterday ayem was about a defecit of $8xx billion over the next 10 years, then they ratcheted it down in scope and number. Why was that?

The NYT does that all the time... it's like they have a clear-thinking editor in the morning, and a "let's not make it all that bad" editor that follows.