$533B is half of $455B?

The 2008 deficiet was $455 billion. A record.

This year's deficiet (2009) will hit $1.75 TRILLION. I'm not OK with that by any stretch, but you can certainly argue that desperate times call for desperate measures. I'd disagree on a number of points, including how desperate it is, when we knew what he know, and how much the desperate response will actually help. In any case, you could argue it, so I'll leave it alone.

However, Obama - not what was it, 2 days ago? - promised to cut the budget deficiet he "inherited" in half by 2013. But the budget he submitted has the deficiet in 2013 at $533B. So either $533B is HALF $455B, Obama lied, or Obama can't help but tell you what you want to hear, regardless of what he really wants to do. Or I suppose he somehow plays with the numbers so that when you index for inflation, consider the jobs that he "saved," and then throw in some wart of a toad and whiskers from a mutated kitten, you can conclude that the $455B Bush decifiet WOULD HAVE BEEN 1.66 trillion, and thus his is halved.

And you can bet that his 2013 estimates are just that, estimates that might and probably will go up, up, up and that they include rosy projections of taxes income that can always be revised downward when the time comes.

UPDATE - sure enough, it appears that Obama's "halve the deficiet" talk refers to the 1.75 trillion budget for 2009. So at $533B he has room to spare. But its kinda just a little disingenuious to talk about the problems of the deficiet you "inherited," more than double it, and then pat yourself on the back for cutting that in half, don't you think?