WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday projected an eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit this year followed by $1.17 trillion in 2010 and warned that tough choices were needed to get the United States' finances back in order.
"While our budget will run deficits, we must begin the process of making the tough choices necessary to restore fiscal discipline, cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office, and put our nation on sound fiscal footing," Obama said in the outline of his 2010 budget.
The deficit figures referred to fiscal year 2009, which ends on September 30. Fiscal year 2010 begins the next day.
Obama has pledged to cut the deficit to $533 billion by January 2013, when his current term in office concludes.
(Reporting by Caren Bohan, Jeff Mason, and Jeremy Pelofsky; editing by Jackie Frank)