Bucco, I'm not sure precisely what the deficit was at the end of 2008, but the $1.3 trillion mentioned on Obama's website is probably pretty close. One of the problems was the way the Obama administration is "counting the beans" compared to the way the Bush administration counted.

The entire cost of the wars in the Middle East were not included in the statement of the deficit. While Bush was in office, he financed the war with many special appropriation bills that were kept separate when the calculation of the deficit was made and discussed. As I recall, the wars in the Middle East have cost an amount just a little short of $1 billion since we invaded Iraq in 2002. The same was true of the $750 billion in "economic stimulus" money that was requested by the Bush administration and approved by Congress after the election, but before the inaguration. Any of that money that was actually disbursed (most of it wasn't) wasn't included in the calculation of the deficit either.

While this Congress has taken spending to another level in a recent partial year spending bill, and the new President opted not to veto their spending plans, at least he should be credited for putting all the expenditures in a single budget so the public can see exactly what's being spent and how much must be borrowed to fund the spending. In his proposed 2009 budget, the war, the stimulus, everything, is shown as line items with a total proposed expenditure for the year for everything. That's a level of "transparency" that didn't exist for the last eight years, at least.

Maybe someone else can actually come up with what the total federal spending was in 2008 in comparison to the proposed spending for FY 2009. Remember, while the President has proposed a budget for 2009, Congress has not yet chosen to address it with enabling legislation. Last time I checked, the budget and all the proposed spending was bouncing around somewhere in Charlie Rangel's Ways & Means committee. (Does that make you feel better?) The House can opt to spend less, or a lot more than was recommended by the President. Other than his veto and the power of the bully pulpit, the President has no Constitutional authority over government spending. The House of Representatives has total authority over spending as well as the taxes they choose to collect to pay for their spending, as well as the cap on national debt needed to finance the deficit.

One number I am sure of, because I just read it in the Wall Street Journal last week, is that the current national debt is just a few dollars short of $550,000 for every household in America. That doesn't count the deficit that will be added as the result of the 2009 budget.