The federal deficit will increase to $1.6 trillion this year or 11.2 percent of the GDP, a percentage that has not been seen since the end of World War II.  The Congressional Budget Office says the number, although high, is actually slightly lower than originally predicted because the U.S. managed to reduce the  Troubled Asset Relief Program by $200 billion.

The dismal numbers are primarily due to a decrease in tax money collected by the federal government because of the economic downturn.

The news may pressure Obama to recalculate his health care pitch as the projected debt could push the country further into dangerous territory.  Senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said, “If the House Democrats’ unaffordable $1 trillion health are bill wasn’t dead before, it should be now.”

Along with the fiscal concerns, unemployment is expected to hit 10 percent before the end of the year and stay there through the beginning of 2010. It is not until 2013 or 2014 that “more normal levels” will be seen said U.S. economist Dean Baker.

“The budget deficit is apt to become a greater political concern,” Goldman Sachs economist Alec Phillips said Friday.

In an effort to address a budget fiasco he inherited from George W. Bush, Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term in 2013.  However,  the new numbers are startling and seem to indicate Obama won’t be able to fufill those promises.   White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, maintain that despite the resulting debt, government efforts like the stimulus package were necessary to keep the economy from failing completely.

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