WASHINGTON - The federal government posted a $134.2 billion budget deficit for August, $44 billion or 48% larger, because of special factors, than the $90.5 billion deficit of August 2010.
August 2010 spending was artificially lowered because the first of the month fell on a weekend. That pushed $28 billion of monthly payments including Social Security, military pay and veterans’ benefits back into the July budget.
If those payments are excluded, then the 2011 August deficit would have been $15 billion or 12% higher than August 2010.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had a median deficit estimate of $132.0 billion. That was the same as the Congressional Budget Office predicted in its September 8 monthly report.
In July, the government ran a $129.4 billion deficit.
Revenues for August were up $5 billion or 3% from a year ago to $169 billion. The increase is more than accounted for by a $7 billion or 5% improvement in individual withholding of both income and Social Security and Medicare taxes. The CBO said receipts from income and payroll taxes were up despite the temporary cut in the payroll tax, but much of that rise in tax withholding happened because August 2011 had one more business day than August 2010.
Outlays for August were $303 billion, up $49 billion or 19% from the artificially suppressed spending of August 2010.
The federal deficit was $1.234 trillion for the first 11months of FY2011, down $26 billion or 2% from the first 11 months of FY2010. There were special factors that affected the year-to-date figures for both 2010 and 2011. They included two downward re-estimates of TARP costs and two downward re-estimates for education loan subsidies. There was also a one-time FDIC assessment in the FY2010 budget
Also, tax refunds have been significantly lower in FY2011, down 9% for individuals and 29% for corporations
Adjusting for all the one-time transactions and the calendar shift, the Treasury says that the year-to-date FY2011 deficit would have been $1.316 trillion, down $122 billion or 9% compared to the same period in FY2010.
