And They Criticized Bush

America's Deficit-Spending Spree Raises Alarms - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

Not since World War II has America spent so much money so quickly.

In the last two years, the United States has run up deficits that amount to a combined $2.5 trillion dollars -- almost a fourth of all the debt the nation has taken on in its entire history.

"It's really staggering to think we're going to have trillion-dollar deficits for the next several years," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told FOX News.

The deficit for January alone totaled $83.8 billion, worse than the $78 billion economists expected. The government had run a surplus of $17.8 billion in January 2008.

The huge deterioration in the government's finances reflects the recession, which has cut into tax revenues, and the large amounts of money being spent from the $700 billion finance rescue plan that Congress passed in October. About three-fourths of the deficit increase was related to spending on the bailout program.

With eight months left in the current budget year, the deficit already has surpassed the deficit for 2008, an imbalance of $454.8 billion that is the full-year record.

The Congressional Budget Office has forecast that the deficit for the current budget year will hit $1.2 trillion, but that estimate does not include the cost of President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan, which he signed this week.

Many private economists are forecasting that the budget deficit for the current year will hit $1.6 trillion.

"These are the first trillion-dollar deficits the world has ever seen," Brian Reidl, a budget analyst at Heritage Foundation, told FOX News.