<P> In October 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave the reasons for the higher budget deficit in 2009 ($1,410 billion, i.e. $1.41 trillion) over that of 2008 ($460 billion). The major changes included: declines in tax receipt of $320 billion due to the effects of the recession and another $100 billion due to tax rate cuts in the stimulus bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act or ARRA); $245 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and other bailout efforts; $100 billion in additional spending for ARRA; and another $185 billion due to increases in primary budget categories such as Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, Social Security, and Defense--including the war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq . This was the highest budget deficit relative to GDP (9.9%) since 1945 . The national debt increased by $1.9 trillion during FY2009, versus the $1.0 trillion increase during 2008 . </P> <P> The Obama Administration also made four significant accounting changes to more accurately report total federal government spending . The four changes were: </P> <Ol> <Li> Account for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ("overseas military contingencies") in the budget, rather than through supplemental appropriations </Li> <Li> Assume the Alternative Minimum Tax is indexed for inflation; </Li> <Li> Account for the full costs of Medicare reimbursements </Li> <Li> Anticipate inevitable expenditures for natural disaster relief </Li> </Ol> <Li> Account for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ("overseas military contingencies") in the budget, rather than through supplemental appropriations </Li>

The last surplus in the us occurred in the 1980s