Soaring health care costs dominate projected deficit increases

Some in Washington believe the nation can't afford to pass health-care reform legislation. White House budget director Peter Orszag told The Washington Post(WPO) on Tuesday that he believes the opposite is true: "Given the long-term nature of that problem, we simply can't afford to wait."

The good news in the White House's 10-year budget forecast is that this year's budget deficit estimate was lowered to $1.58 trillion for the fiscal year ending September 30. The bad news is that the 10-year budget-deficit estimate for 2010–2019 has been increased to $9.05 trillion from the previous estimate of $7.1 trillion, released in May.