The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released new projections on Wednesday morning showing that the federal budget deficit will hit nearly $900 billion this year, and will top $1 trillion next year.

The White House OMB now projects the deficit will rocket to $890B this year and top $1T through 2021.

cc, uh, Larry Kudlow. pic.twitter.com/feaKaLWbPa — Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) July 18, 2018

The OMB’s latest projections show that the federal debt situation is also not great.

Federal debt will hit $25 Trillion in fiscal 2021 – four full fiscal years after Trump took office – under his OMB's own estimates. — Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) July 18, 2018

The new projections come while the Trump administration and House Republicans are mobilizing to try and get another round of tax cuts passed before November’s election — which would likely push the deficit even higher.


Trump held a White House meeting on Tuesday with Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) during which Brady told Trump, “We’re here to talk to you about making permanent this tax relief… We can protect them against a future Washington trying to steal back those hard-earned dollars that you, and the Republican Congress, has given them.”

Brady told an approving Trump that he anticipates the House voting on the tax cuts in September.

Then, during a Fox & Friends appearance on Wednesday morning, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway touted making permanent the temporary household tax cuts that Republicans passed as part of their business tax cut package late last year.

.@KellyannePolls: “The most important thing that has to happen is making permanent the individual tax cuts.” @foxandfriends pic.twitter.com/hcHD5KG7Oq — Fox News (@FoxNews) July 18, 2018

As ThinkProgress has previously detailed, perhaps the biggest factor preventing the budget projections from being even more dire is the fact that the temporary household tax cuts are currently set to expire in 2026:

One of the primary drivers behind the terrible deficit and debt projections is the Republican tax cut bill… and the only glimmer of hope in the CBO’s [recent] analysis is the expiration of the tax cuts in 2026. But the White House and Republicans in Congress insist they won’t let the tax cuts expire. Instead, they’ve promised to extend them.

While the OMB warns about rising deficits, one of Trump’s top economic advisers remains in denial. Late last month, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, falsely claimed during an interview with Fox Business that the deficit is “coming down rapidly.”

“As the economy gears up, more people working, better jobs and careers, those revenues come rolling in and the deficit, which was one of the other criticisms, is coming down,” Kudlow told host Maria Bartiromo. “It’s coming down rapidly. Growth solves a lot of problems.”

Kudlow’s claim was false then, is false now, and will be even further from the truth if Republicans in Congress manage to cut taxes yet again before November’s election.