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New figures show the US budget deficit has more than tripled since last year. It is now 1.4 trillion dollars. And joining us now to talk about this is NBC’s White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie.
Savannah, based on what you’re hearing, how might this number affect the health care debate?
Well, it definitely complicates it when you’re talking about eye-popping numbers like that, people are concerned about spending even more, you know, this budget deficit is a direct effect of the recession. Tax revenues are way down, a result of all that unemployment, and government’s spending way up because of the bailout and stimulus package. The White House did get a little bit of good news yesterday, that's the key senate bill, the one that a lot of people think is gonna be the template for the final bill, was analyzed by the independent congressional budget office and it found that it actually will shave 81 billion dollars off the deficit over 10 years, so a bit of a bright spot and an otherwise bleak budget picture.
All right, Savannah Guthrie this morning, Savannah thanks a lot.