The White House says President Barack Obama’s budget, released Wednesday, focuses on creating jobs and strengthening the middle class. The proposal would trim the yearly deficit to about $500 billion by the end of the decade. But it still projects a deficit of $973 billion for the current year (falling to $744 billion in 2014) and continuing the red ink over the next 10 years. The last time the government ran an annual surplus? In 2001.