This month, the federal government reported its third-highest budget deficit in history for fiscal year 2005, which ended on September 30. The deficit, at $318.6 billion, was 2.6 percent of gross domestic product. Bush administration officials praised the report, citing the improvement over last year's $412.8 billion deficit and are continuing to claim the president will still meet his goal of reducing the deficit in half by 2009. Yet as we have previously reported, President Bush's policies will drastically increase the deficit beyond 2009. This has been confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office, which has projected the deficit doubling to $640 billion in 2015; the national debt rising to $9.2 trillion; and interest paid on that debt almost tripling, going from $182 billion last year to $458 billion in 2015 if we continue the President's policies.