Adding to the national debt at a rate of more than 100 billion dollars every month

From AFP

President Barack Obama's newly raised 2009 and 2010 deficit projections show the need to fight spending plans that will swell the "already unsustainable" US debt, a top Republican said Monday.

"It's clear that there is much more that we can do to protect our children and grandchildren from the unprecedented trillions in additional debt proposed by the administration," said Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell charged in a statement that Democrats were "adding to the national debt at a rate of more than 100 billion dollars every month" with a budget "that triples the already unsustainable public debt over the next decade."

His comments came after the White House raised its 2009 and 2010 deficit forecasts each by nearly 90 billion dollars, reflecting the cost of fighting the economic crisis, in a finalized budget of 3.6 trillion dollars.

The administration released new projections to the federal government budget for the fiscal year 2010 beginning in October, a week after announcing 17 billion dollars in deficit-reducing cuts to 121 government programs.

Federal government spending for 2010 will increase to 3.591 trillion dollars with revenue estimated at 2.333 trillion dollars, resulting in a deficit of 1.258 trillion dollars, the new tables of data show.

The updated data also showed a 3.998-trillion-dollar budget for 2009 with a deficit of 1.841 trillion dollars, also about 90 billion dollars higher than previously estimated.

Original estimates had foreseen a 1.750-trillion-dollar deficit in fiscal 2009, which ends September 30, then a decrease to 1.171 trillion dollars in 2010.