Even though the name of this website is PoliticallyMotivated.net, I usually try to avoid making posts about topics that concern politics because the intent of this blog is not to be about politics (I just thought I was being clever when I created the name). However, I could not help myself from posting about this: the deficit for President Barak Obama’s 2010 federal budget is $1.75 trillion. Yes trillion: 1,750,000,000,000. That is a lot of zeroes:

President Obama on Thursday unveiled a $3 trillion-plus budget that he says will halve the federal deficit by the end of his first term.

The budget for fiscal year 2010 includes substantial investments in health care reform, renewable energy and education.

The budget also includes big cuts for some programs, setting the stage for major political battles as political patrons fight to save budget items in the months ahead.

Based on the proposed budget, the administration projects the deficit for fiscal year 2009 will reach $1.75 trillion, or 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s a record in dollar terms and is the highest as a share of GDP since World War II.

Source: CNN.com

If you want to read up about the budget in full detail visit Budget.gov.

A quick explanation about the difference between the US national debt and the national deficit:

• The national deficit is the amount of money the government spends in one fiscal year (such as in 2010) that it does not have (i.e. revenue by taxes and other sources of income is not enough to cover all the spending).
• The national debt is the total of all the national deficits (or surpluses – yes we have had surpluses) of each fiscal year since the USA was created.

The national debt is usually the number that is quoted by many people. The national debt is:

(Source: zFacts.com)

I don’t know about you, but that is a whole lot of money. Think about how many hungry people around the world we could feed with that money; or how many awesome cars we could buy Ashraf with that money.