This is Shocking

• The 2009 federal deficit will be $1.186 trillion! Even after adjusting for inflation, that's more than the combined cost of the Vietnam War ($698 billion) and the Korean War ($454 billion) ... 4.6 times more than the entire S&L bailout of the 1980s ... and 5.5 times larger than the Louisiana Purchase:

• In sheer dollars, the 2009 federal deficit will shatter every record deficit of every nation in history.
  
  
• Even in proportion to the larger U.S. economy, the 2009 deficit will represent 8.6% of GDP — more than four times the average under Bush, nearly seven times the average under Clinton, and 1.4 times the post-World War II record of 6% under Reagan.
  
  
• After you factor in the additional deficit spending and tax cuts proposed in the Obama stimulus package, the deficit will surge to 10% of GDP.
  
  
• Federal spending will reach 25% of GDP — the highest level in American history outside of World War II. But during World War II, most of the money was spent on war-related production, creating entire new industries and keeping millions of Americans in uniform or on the job. In contrast, most of the 2009 deficit spending will be for corporate bailouts, unemployment benefits, Social Security and Medicare.
  
  
• Already, in the first quarter of fiscal 2009, the federal deficit has ballooned to $485 billion, an unprecedented increase of 353% compared to the previous year. If it continues to grow at that pace, it will make all the above estimates look small by comparison.

This is not a fictional scenario conjured up by a gloomy economists with a murky crystal ball. Nor does it represent a third-party diatribe against Democrats and Republicans. It accurately represents the actual numbers just released by the nonpartisan CBO on January 8.