http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BUDGET_DEFICIT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-11-14-41-18
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government ran a lower budget deficit this August than a year ago, remaining on track to record the lowest deficit for the entire year since 2008.
The August deficit was $128.7 billion, down 13 percent from the $147.9 billion deficit recorded in August 2013, the Treasury Department said Thursday in its monthly budget report.
With just one month left in the budget year, the deficit totals $589.2 billion, 22 percent below last year's 11-month total.
The Congressional Budget Office expects the government to run a sizable surplus in September that will allow the government to close out the budget year with a deficit of $506 billion, the lowest since 2008.
The improvement this year has occurred because of a 7.7 percent increase in tax revenues that offset a smaller 0.8 percent increase in spending. Revenues have been boosted by an improving economy and a tax increase that started taking effect in January 2013 that raised taxes on upper income individuals and eliminated a tax break workers had been getting on their Social Security taxes in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
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