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QUESTION:
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Monthly Budget Review, Fiscal Year 2008, A CBO Analysis | The Federal Deficit was about $107 billion more in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates -- about $27 billion more than in the same period last year.
Outlays have increased by 9 percent compared with their level in the first three months of 2007, whereas Revenues have grown about 6 percent.
The Treasury has reported a Deficit of $98 billion for the month of November.
That sum is about $3 billion less than the CBO had estimated on the basis of the Daily Treasury Statements, primarily because spending was lower than expected for International Assistance and the Department of Agriculture.
The Surplus in December was $47 billion, CBO estimates, $5 billion more than the Surplus recorded in December 2006.
The budget results in December tend to be better than those in many other months because most corporations make quarterly income tax payments and withholding for individuals is relatively high because of year-end Bonuses and Seasonal Employment.
Total receipts in December 2007 were about $16 billion (or 6 percent) higher than those collected in the previous December CBO estimates.
Withholding for income and Social Security (payroll) taxes accounts for that increase, with a gain of $16 billion, or 10.5 percent.
Some of that growth reflects the fact that December 2007 ended on a Monday, the biggest withholding day, whereas December 2006 ended on a Friday -- thus boosting receipts in December 2007 at the expense of those in early January.
Gross Corporate Payments, which include the final estimated payment by most corporations for tax year 2007, were higher in December 2006, but that increase was roughly offset by higher Refunds.
Outlays were $11 billion (or 5 percent) higher this December than in the same month last year, the CBO estimates.
Medicaid spending in the first quarter was almost 11 percent more than the program's outlays in the first three months of 2007.
By contrast, Medicare outlays rose by less than 1 percent on an adjusted basis, largely because payments to prescription drug plans have been adjusted to reconcile estimated and actual costs for 2007.
Roughly half of the growth in first-quarter outlays for net interest on the public debt was due to the increased cost of inflation-indexed securities.
The remaining increase results from additional debt and higher intragovernmental interest payments.
A large, one-time receipt, and shifts in the timing of certain payments, affected the Spending Growth.
Outlays in December were reduced by the receipt of $12.7 billion from the Auction of Licenses to Use the Electromagnetic Spectrum, but, at the same time, about $10 billion in payments was shifted into December 2007 because January 1 is a holiday. |  | asked by grandpa24551, 1/8/2008 |
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Categories:
Pensions, Financial Planning for Retirement, Retirement Assets, Government and Union Retirement Benefits, Social Security, Health Insurance
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