No, some companies give bonuses, most do not. It's probably just something you ate giving you that feeling.

Not at all. First, the increase is from including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the budget rather than through the use of “emergency” supplemental spending bills. The previous administration never included his catastrophe in to the budget, he just kept kicking the can down the road. Additionally, the increase assumes the Alternative Minimum Tax will be indexed for inflation; accounts for the full costs of Medicare reimbursements, and anticipates the inevitable expenditures for natural disaster relief. These are all additions that the previous admin either kept hidden, or simply disregarded. Finally, also included is the cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (from the previous admin), and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

According to the CBO, the U.S. budget situation has deteriorated significantly since 2001, when they forecast average annual surpluses of approximately $850 billion from 2009–2012. The average deficit forecast in each of those years is now approximately $1,215 billion because of the previous republican House majority. But the CBO based that data on current law. Now with the new republican House majority (that sounds real expensive, doesn't it?), the deficit will increase almost automatically when they extend the bush tax cuts. Although the rs swear they can extend the tax cuts and balance the budget at the same time. Yeah, and I'm going to get a unicorn that farts glitter.

But even given all that, the deficit is still projected to be less than doubled by 2015. Not Reaganesque tripled. And absolutely not astronomical.