Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[Rick Faurot]

Budget deficit hits record $395.8B
Treasury says July deficit was bigger than expected; final 2004 gap could set a new record.
August 11, 2004: 4:10 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government ran a larger-than-expected budget deficit in July, bringing the year-to-date shortfall between receipts and spending to a record of nearly $400 billion, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury said the July deficit was $69.16 billion, based on revenues of $134.42 billion and spending of $203.58 billion. That was above the $61 billion shortfall Wall Street economists had expected and wider than July 2003's $54.24 billion deficit.

With only August and September left in the 2004 federal budget year, the red ink through the first 10 months totaled $395.8 billion. That's ahead of the revised record budget gap in 2003 of $374.27 billion.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/11/news/economy/budget_deficit.reut/