CBO: US Deficit $61B Lower Than Last Year
By Sandy Fitzgerald

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The government has racked up a $231 billion budget deficit for the first two  months of the new fiscal year, but that's down $61 billion from last year's  figures, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget  Office.

The CBO's  findings said increased tax revenues and lower spending led to the drop, reports  The Hill.

Individual tax receipts were up by 10 percent after a  two-point payroll tax expired in January. In addition, tax rates increased on  people making more than $400,000 a year, also narrowing the deficit.

The  decline also reflects a five percent spending decrease, reported the CBO, which  came with sequestration cuts. For example, in the first two months of the year,  there was $10 billion less in defense spending.

In addition,  unemployment benefits spending and net interest on the public debt also each  dropped by $3 billion, and disaster aid spending was down as well.

Department of Agriculture spending also dipped by $4 billion, and Federal  Emergency Management Agency spending dropped by $2 billion, reports the CBO.

But increases in two of the government's largest entitlement programs,  Social Security and Medicaid went up, by $7 billion and $1billion,  respectively.

The difference of one Day made a huge spending difference  for the month of December, the CBO reports. Because Dec. 1 fell on a weekend,  the government incurred a $140 billion deficit in November, $33 billion smaller  than the $172 billion deficit in November 2012.

With Dec. 1 falling on a  weekend in both years, some payments that would have been made in December came  instead in November.