Obama's budget chief boasts of 'reducing deficits and debt.' Here's what's really going on.

The Obama administration's top budget official said Wednesday that President Barack Obama's 2016 budget achieves his stated goal of reducing annual budget deficits and the national debt — a claim that goes directly against Obama's budget, which foresees a rising budget deficit for the next decade and no clear way to reduce the debt that continues to pile up.

"The president's budget provides official projections for spending, revenues, deficits, and debt over the next 10 years, reflecting the president's proposed policies, including ending sequestration, investing in growth and opportunity, and reducing deficits and debt," Office of Management and Budget Director Shawn Donovan wrote Wednesday.

Office of Management and Budget Director Shawn Donovan says Obama's budget reflects his priority of reducing deficits and debt, but both continue to grow. Image: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

But while it's true that Obama's budget reflects his priorities, Obama's own numbers show that "reducing deficits and debt" are not among those priorities.

According to Obama's proposal, enacting his proposed policies would slightly reduce the annual budget deficit from 2015 through 2017. But even by 2017, it would still be $463 billion — a few billion more than the highest budget deficit seen under President George W. Bush.

After that, the budget deficit would rise again to nearly $700 billion by 2025.

In total, the White House expects the government will take on $5.67 trillion in new debt between 2016 and 2025. If so, that would make it impossible to achieve Obama's stated goal of paying down the national debt.

Image: White House Office of Management and Budget

Obama administration officials routinely refer to the size of the budget deficit as a percentage of U.S. gross domestic product, and often use that comparison to argue that the deficit is shrinking. But even by that measurement, Obama's budget plan doesn't offer any long-term reduction in the deficit.

For example, it said the deficit as a percentage of GDP would be 3.2 percent in 2015, and would fall to 2.5 percent in 2016. But after that, the percentage fluctuates between 2.3 and 2.6 percent through 2025.

White House budget projections tend to be more optimistic than the projections put out by the Congressional Budget Office, in part because CBO assumes current law stays in place, while the White House assumes all of its policy prescriptions become law. On Monday, the CBO put out a new budget outlook that says the prognosis for the budget deficit and the national debt is far worse than the White House's optimistic assessment.

For example, the Obama White House assumes that $5.67 trillion in new debt by 2025, while CBO says it'll be closer to $7.21 trillion.