U.S. debt could hit $9.75 trillion

WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- The 2011 U.S. budget will result in almost $10 trillion in deficits over 10 years and raise federal debt to 90 percent of economic output by 2020, experts say.

The budget, released by the White House in February, projected a 10-year total deficit of $8.53 million, but the Congressional Budget Office estimates that will climb to $9.75 trillion, the Washington Times reported Friday.

"An additional $1.2 trillion in debt dumped on [GDP] to our children makes a huge difference," Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said. "That represents an additional debt of $10,000 per household above and beyond the federal debt they are already carrying."

The federal debt was $6.3 trillion when President Obama entered office, now stands at $8.2 trillion and is headed toward $20.3 trillion by 2020, the CBO estimates.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, called that level of debt "extremely problematic."

"The proposed budget is woefully insufficient," she said, "to achieve the president's goal or the important fiscal goal of stabilizing the debt at a reasonable level in the medium and long term."