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Deficit Tops $1 Trillion For Fourth Year

The figures are in for the federal government's fiscal 2012 and the deficit was $1.089 trillion, .

That's less than the previous year's $1.297 trillion and is the third consecutive decline.

But it's also the of a $1 trillion+ gap between spending and revenues.

-- Fiscal 2009: $1.413 trillion.

-- Fiscal 2010: $1.293 trillion.

-- Fiscal 2011: $1.297 trillion.

-- Fiscal 2012: $1.089 trillion.

, Republican nominee Rep. Paul Ryan criticized President Obama for promising to cut the deficit in half in four years, but instead producing four years of gaps exceeding $1 trillion.

Vice President Biden said Republicans caused both the "Great Recession" and soaring deficits by putting "two wars on a credit card ... a prescription drug benefit on the credit card" and giving the wealth a "$1 trillion tax cut."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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