The White House has leaked their estimate of the projected 10 year deficit which will be officially announced next week. It projects a whopping $2 trillion increase.

From Politico.com:

The White House is likely to dramatically increase its projected 10-year budget deficit estimate next week by nearly $2 trillion, senior administration officials said Friday.

Obama administration officials have concluded the economy was much worse last year — and tax revenues much lower — than they had initially assumed, which means that the estimated budget deficit will increase from $7 trillion to about $9 trillion over the coming decade.

The planned revision was first reported by Reuters, and White House officials confirmed that account for POLITICO.

I’m not going to hyperventilate about this simply because 10 year projections are close to meaningless. Just look back over the past ten and you’ll get the picture. The news, however, isn’t good when you’re trying to push through health care overhaul which many are coming to view as a budget buster. Whether true or not that’s the perception.

What you can probably take from this is the obvious — the country is on precarious financial footing. Whether we attack the problem is another matter.