Washington, Oct 21: The federal budget deficit hit a record 374.2 billion dollars in 2003, the administration reported, as the costs of the war in Iraq, a new round of tax cuts and economic weakness pushed the US government's Red Ink to the highest level in history. Providing a final accounting of the budget year that ended September 30, the administration said that the 2003 deficit was more than double last year's imbalance of 157.8 billion dollars. In dollar terms, the 2003 figure easily surpassed the old record of 290.4 billion dollars set in 1992 when President George W. Bush's father was President. However, Bush administration officials noted that the 2003 deficit represented just 3.5 percent of the country's total economic output, below the 5 percent and 6 percent levels hit in the 1980s during the Reagan administration. The administration prefers to link the deficit to total economic output as a better measure of the country's ability to carry the debt burden. Bureau Report