Q+A: Blame game over record U.S. deficit set to intensify

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In President Barack Obama''s first year in office, fellow Democrats and Republicans traded pot-shots over who was to blame for the record U.S. deficit. In 2010, an election year, these are set to become broadsides.

HOW BIG AN ISSUE WILL IT BE IN CONGRESSIONAL ELECTIONS?

Democrats and Republicans will do their best to minimize their contact with this political hot potato, so they don''t get burned in the high-stakes November elections, which could potentially alter the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Expect to see the blame game intensify as both parties try to persuade voters that the other side is responsible for the $1.4 trillion deficit, while portraying themselves as the fiscally prudent party.

Democrats are already pushing for the Obama administration to ramp up its rhetoric and do a better job of pinning the blame for the huge deficit on the Republicans.

"If we don''t blame Republicans for the state of the economy, they will blame us and voters will believe them," warned one Democratic blogger.

Liberal economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times last week that Obama had "allowed the public to forget, with remarkable speed, that the economy''s troubles didn''t start on his watch."

Opinion polls suggest the Republicans have had some success in convincing voters that the blame lies with "big-spending" Democrats -- a toxic label in an election year. A USA Today-Gallup poll conducted on January 8-10 found 56 percent of Americans disapproved of Obama''s handling of the economy.

In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, Obama is expected to defend his efforts to stabilize the economy, which has begun to grow again, and emphasize his commitment to reining in the deficit by the end of his term in 2012.

That is unlikely to deter attacks from Republicans, who recognize the soaring deficit, and the anxiety it instills in Americans, is a powerful stick with which to beat Obama and the Democrats in the run-up to the elections.

WHO IS TO BLAME THEN? (WHAT THE DEMOCRATS SAY)

Obama used numerous speeches in his first year as president to complain about the "fiscal disaster" he inherited from his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, blaming Bush''s big tax cuts and increased spending on healthcare and two wars for the $1.3 trillion deficit he faced on his first day in office.