Just in time for the fall campaign, the Congressional Budget Office reports today that the budget deficit for this year will be $1.3 trillion.
That's a fraction better -- $27 billion -- than the CBO predicted in March.
And it’s a fraction better than last year's deficit -- $71 billion lower.
But it's still awful.
Measured as a share of the total economy, it's 9.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product, the second largest in the last 65 years. The worst? Last year, when it measured 9.9 percent of the total economy.
"As was the case last year," the CBO says, "this year's deficit is attributable in large part to a combination of weak revenues and elevated spending associated with the economic downturn and the policies implemented in response to it."
