The U.S. budget deficit widened more than expected in February from a year earlier, as military and Medicare spending surged, the Treasury Department said Thursday.
The $113.9 billion shortfall, the biggest monthly gap ever, compares with a deficit of $96.7 billion in February 2004. Economists had forecast a shortfall of $100 billion.
In January, the Treasury reported a budget surplus of $8.7 billion.
January is typically a surplus month because quarterly taxes are due.
In February, government spending climbed 14 percent, to $214.8 billion, compared with the same month a year ago, while revenue rose 9.7 percent, to $100.9 billion.
For the first five months of the fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, the deficit totaled $223.4 billion, down 2.2 percent from the first five months of the previous fiscal year.
Individual income tax receipts totaled $354.8 billion in the first five months, up 9.6 percent from the same period in the previous fiscal year. Corporate income taxes surged 50.4 percent higher, to $72.8 billion.
Military spending so far this fiscal year totaled $194.2 billion, up 6.9 percent from the first five months of fiscal 2004. Spending on the Medicare program for senior citizens jumped 10 percent, to $115.6 billion.
The Bush administration is projecting that this year’s federal deficit will hit an all-time high of $427 billion, surpassing last year’s record of $412.8 billion.
However, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting a deficit for this year of $394 billion, including Bush’s supplemental requests to Congress for funding the Iraq war.
Many private economists are also forecasting that this year’s deficit will be slightly lower than last year’s record.
Over the next 10 years, the deficit will reach $2.6 trillion under the budget request Bush submitted to Congress last month, the CBO said March 4.
