Federal government fiscal budgeting covers from October of the previous year through September of the current year. Here are the recent budget proposals compared to the real numbers on spending, receipts and the resulting deficits (all in trillions of dollars):
FY 2008 (Oct 07 - Sept 08):
FY 2009 (Oct 08 - Sept 09): sp - 2.7T, re -
FY 2010 (Oct 09 - Sept 10): sp - 3.55T, re - 2.13T, def - 1.42T
Actual FY 2010: sp - 4.47T, re - 2.22T, def - 2.25T
You can read on the GAO's website about the reasons for the large increases in costs in FY09. Basically Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps) and unemployment benefits shot up as the employment rate hit and maintained 10%. It is important to note that these are automatic increases in costs that are already written into law, not associated with "new spending" programs.
Here are Obama's proposed future budgets:
FY 2011 (Oct 10 - Sept 11): sp - 3.82T, re - 2.17T, def - 1.65T
FY 2012 (Oct 11 - Sept 12): sp - 3.73T, re - 2.63T, def - 1.1T
