Oh Goodie: Budget Shortfall Projected To Be $105 Billion More Than Last Year

So, the good news is that projections for economic growth, despite the current state of the markets, point to expansion. The bad news is that the deficit is set to increase by $105 billion from last year. This would be the first increase since 2009 (via The Hill):

The federal budget deficit is expected to increase this year for the first time since 2009, according to estimates released Tuesday.

This year’s budget shortfall is expected to rise to $544 billion, about $105 billion more than last year, according to a decade-long economic outlook released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The size of the deficit amounts to about 2.9 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the highest level since it peaked at 9.8 percent during the depths of the recession in 2009.

The outlook through 2016, while more grim than those of the last five years, also projects that the overall economy will "expand solidly."

Yet, these are government figures, which a) tend to be lower projections and b) seem to increase as the weeks and months progress.