And believe it or not, that number’s “better than anticipated.” Much like how it’s “better than anticipated” that we’re “only” losing 200,000 jobs a month these days, after we were assured back in February that the stimulus would cap unemployment at eight percent.

The government in August took in $145 billion in receipts, but $256 billion in outlays led to an overall monthly deficit of $111 billion. That number is better than anticipated — most expectations were that the government had added $162 billion to its tab last month.

The record deficit stems from increased government spending to stop the recession and financial crisis combined with lower government tax revenues.

In late August, the Obama administration projected that the deficit for the full budget year will eventually hit $1.58 trillion.

Imagine how grim the future would look if not for the fact that our new health-care program will be entirely deficit-neutral. Via Greg Hengler, here’s Krauthammer posing a good question last night: If there are so many potential savings to be had in streamlining Medicare, why doesn’t The One start streamlining it now, prove that he’s right about hidden billions just waiting to be unearthed by more efficient management, and then demand passage of ObamaCare? It reminds me of the amnesty bill two years ago, which simply had to be “comprehensive”; asking the feds to prove their commitment to enforcing the border first, before talking about legalization, was simply unthinkable. We were being scammed then and we’re being scammed now, needless to say.