Your Economy (No Politics)

[Bullwinkle]

Federal surplus widens to $21 billion
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
2:09pm ET 2/10/2006


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. federal surplus widened to $21 billion in January from $8.6 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department said Friday.

The government typically runs a surplus in January when corporations and individuals make quarterly tax payments.

The January surplus was $3 billion less than the $24 billion surplus expected by the Congressional Budget Office in its monthly budget outlook. The difference came mostly on the outlay side.

Receipts rose 13.7% year-over-year to $230 billion. It's a record for receipts in the month of January.

Outlays rose 7.9% year-over-year to $209 billion, also a record for the month of January.

For the fiscal year to date, the deficit narrowed to $98.3 billion from $109.5 billion at this time last year. For the year, the White House expects a record $423 billion deficit.

Receipts are up 10.3% so far in 2006 to $770.2 billion.

Individual income tax receipts are up 10.8% to $359.9 billion, while corporate tax receipts are up 26.8% to $90.1 billion.

Outlays have risen 7.5% to $858.5 billion year-to-date.

Spending for homeland security is up $19.8 billion or 155% to $32.6 billion, mostly a result of relief and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.

Military spending is up $126 billion or 8.3% to $163.6 billion.
Interest payments are up 12.6%. Health-related spending rose 4%, while Social Security spending rose 4.1%.

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