WASHINGTON — The United States’ budget deficit has topped $1 trillion for a third straight year, adding pressure on Congress and the White House to make more progress on a long-term plan to shrink the growing imbalance.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit through July — the first 10 months of the budget year — totaled $1.1 trillion. Three years ago, that would have been a record high for the full year.
This year’s deficit is on pace to top last year’s imbalance of $1.29 trillion. But it is likely to fall short of the record $1.41 trillion set in 2009.
For the first 10 months of the budget year, spending has risen 2.4 percent while revenue has climbed 8 percent. That’s a sign that more people are working and paying taxes, although unemployment remains high at 9.1 percent.
Record deficits have forced President Barack Obama and Congress to create a 12-member committee of lawmakers tasked with reducing the red ink over the next decade by $1.2 trillion. If the panel cannot agree on a plan by Thanksgiving, severe across-the-board spending cuts would take effect automatically.
On Wednesday, Republicans named a mix of partisans and pragmatists to the deficit-cutting panel. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, named conservative Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, a rising force among House Republicans, as GOP co-chairman of the powerful new panel. Boehner also appointed House Ways and Means chairman Dave Camp and House Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton, a pair of veteran Michigan Republicans, to the committee.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., named confidant and No. 2 Senate GOP leader Jon Kyl of Arizona, picking a lawmaker who is retiring in 2013 and is a solid conservative. He also appointed GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, elected last year with Tea Party backing, and fellow freshman Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, a former budget director and trade representative for President George W. Bush who is viewed as a possible vice presidential pick next year.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., chose Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who runs the Senate Democratic campaign arm, as Democratic co-chair of the debt committee. He also appointed 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a centrist who backed Bush’s 2001 tax cuts, to the new panel.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has yet to name her three members but is required to do so by next week.
