DEFICIT MOUNTS: The federal deficit totals $844.5 billion through the first eight months of this budget year, 8.9 percent smaller than a year earlier.
TRILLION DOLLARS: Even so, the Congressional Budget Office expects 2012’s deficit to hit $1.17 trillion, compared with $1.3 trillion last year. This likely will be the fourth consecutive year the deficit has topped $1 trillion.
POLITICAL FALLOUT: Deficits this big are certain to keep the budget near the center of the presidential campaign. President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger, are offering sharply different approaches to reining in the deficits.
