U.S. must live within its means: Geithner

The United States must live within its means once its economy recovers if it is to preserve global confidence in the U.S. dollar’s status, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Friday.

The comments came as the Obama administration reported a record U.S. budget deficit for the fiscal year ended September of $1.4 trillion. At 10 percent of gross domestic product, it was the biggest U.S. fiscal shortfall since World War Two.

Rescuing the economy and some of the country’s biggest banks from the worst recession since the Great Depression took a toll on U.S. finances, and the White House has forecast deficits of more than $1 trillion through fiscal 2011.

“Future deficits are too high, and the president is committed to working with Congress to bring them down to a sustainable level as the economy recovers,” Geithner said in a statement accompanying the fiscal data.

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