President Barack Obama is set to unveil a record-braking $1.56trillion budget deficit today as part of his $3.83trillion plan for the fiscal year.
Mr Obama's plan, which he will reveal this afternoon, is to pour more money into the fight against high unemployment, boost taxes on the wealthy and freeze spending for a wide swath of government programs.
The deficit for this year would surge to a record-breaking $1.56trillion, topping last year's then unprecedented $1.41trillion gap.
The astonishing numbers have led to a blame game being played in Washington.
But administration officials are wasting no time in hitting back.
Democrats have argued that Mr Obama inherited a deficit that was already topping $1trillion when he took office, thanks to his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.
Given the severity of the economic downturn, the president had to spend billions of dollars stabilizing the financial system and jump-starting growth, they claim.
Even with Mr Obama's cost-cutting measures, such as a drastic three-year budget freeze on a variety of programs outside of the military and homeland security, the deficit would remain above $1trillion in 2011.
The president also plans to increase taxes on energy producers and families making more than $250,000.
Echoing the pledge in his State of the Union address to make job creation his top priority, Mr Obama put forward a budget that included a $100billion jobs measure.
The money is earmarked to provide tax breaks to encourage businesses to boost hiring, as well as increased government spending on infrastructure and energy projects.
He called for fast congressional action to speed relief to millions left unemployed in the worst recession since the 1930s.
Mr Obama's job proposals would push government spending in 2010 to $3.72trillion, up 5.7 per cent from last year.
His blueprint for the 2011 budget year, which begins October 1, would increase spending further to $3.83trillion, three per cent higher than projected for this year.
Much of the spending surge over the past two years reflects the cost of the $787billion economic stimulus measure that Congress passed in February 2009 to deal with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The surge in the deficits reflects not only the increased spending but also a big drop in tax revenues, reflecting the 7.2million people who have lost jobs since the recession began and weaker corporate tax receipts.
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