"What my budget does is…that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt."

Candidate Barack Obama

Regardless of their political affiliation, Americans are increasingly concerned with the massive deficit spending in Washington and the accompanying national debt load. Aware of the impact such an approach would have on their own personal budgets, Americans realize that such an approach to finance is not indefinitely sustainable.

In an attempt to quell those fears while presenting a budget laden with new spending, President Obama said, "What my budget does is…that by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt."

Facts available through the White House Web site tell the truth: every year through 2020, President Obama’s budgets forecast both deficits and an increase in year-over-year national debt.

According to the President’s own budgets, deficits for the next decade will be as follows:

• 2010: $1.293 trillion
• 2011: $1.645 trillion
• 2012: $1.101 trillion
• 2013: $768 billion
• 2014: $645 billion
• 2015: $607 billion
• 2016: $649 billion
• 2017: $627 billion
• 2018: $619 billion
• 2019: $681 billion
• 2020: $735 billion

However, the annual deficits listed above are dwarfed by the accumulating debt burden on America. President Obama’s budgets project public debt to the tune of:

• 2010: $9.019 trillion
• 2011: $10.856 trillion
• 2012: $11.881 trillion
• 2013: $12.784 trillion
• 2014: $13.562 trillion
• 2015: $14.301 trillion
• 2016: $15.064 trillion
• 2017: $15.795 trillion
• 2018: $16.513 trillion
• 2019: $17.284 trillion
• 2020: $18.103 trillion

Some of the most pro-Obama economists have expressed concern that the President’s projections are optimistic at best, so these forecasts could be much higher. Regardless, there’s no debating that even by President Obama’s budget forecasts, for every year from 2010 through 2020, deficits will persist and the national debt will increase.

If numbers don’t lie, then what (or who) does?

With his claim that "by the middle of this decade our annual spending will match our annual revenues. We will not be adding more to the national debt," the answer is clearly: our president.