Remember When Obama Said He'd Cut The Deficit In Half?

Neither does he.

Remember when President Obama promised he'd cut the deficit in half in his first term? Well, the results are in, and red ink will once again top $1 trillion. Calling this an epic failure isn't enough.

In his first budget message to the country, Obama promised to make the "tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline, cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office, and put our nation on sound fiscal footing." His plan projected a deficit of $557 billion this year, and $512 billion next year.

On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office showed how far Obama has missed that target. It reported that the deficit will top $1.1 trillion this year, and assuming Congress keeps most of the Bush tax cuts in place (which Obama wants), the deficit will be close to, if not more than, $1 trillion next year.

It gets even worse when you look at the deficit as a share of the economy. Obama's first budget promised the deficit would account for just 3.4% of GDP by 2012. Actual result: 7.3%. He said the deficit next year would be just 2.9% of GDP. Now the CBO figures it will be more like 6%.