The federal government posted a budget deficit in January, the first for that month since President Bush’s father was in the White House, with expenditures outstripping receipts by $1.4 billion. A year earlier, the government had a surplus of $10.6 billion.
The shortfall may raise the likelihood that the deficit for the 2004 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, will hit the $521 billion forecast by the White House. That would shatter the record of $374.2 billion, set in fiscal 2003.
Annual surpluses were reported from fiscal 1996 through 2000, the most since before the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The last January deficit, of $15.7 billion, was in 1992, when George H.W. Bush was president. The U.S. had just emerged from recession and had fought the gulf war the previous year. Surpluses are typical for the month because of quarterly tax payments.
Revenue fell 1.9 percent from January 2003, to $184.3 billion. Spending rose 4.7 percent, to $185.6 billion.
For the first months of this fiscal year, the Treasury Department produced a deficit of $130.1 billion, up from $97.6 billion for the same period in the 2003 fiscal year. Last month, the department reported its first December deficit since 1998.
