Deficit Averaged $110 Billion Per Month So Far in 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011
By Matt Cover


President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks in Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, after the Senate passed the debt ceiling legislation. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(CNSNews.com) – The federal deficit averaged $110 billion per month through the first 10 months of fiscal year 2011, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) latest budget review. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/123xx/doc123 ... 07_MBR.pdf

The figure comes from the CBO’s monthly budget review, which tracks federal spending and revenue levels as they come in. The most recent review, released Aug. 5, showed that through July the federal deficit was $1.1 trillion – averaging out to $110 billion per month over the 10 months since October 2010 – the start of fiscal year 2011. (Fiscal year 2011 began on Oct. 1, 2010 and ends on Sept. 30, 2011.)

That figure is down slightly from last year’s $1.2 trillion 10-month deficit, due mainly to increased tax revenue and lower-than-expected federal outlays.

“The federal budget deficit was about $1.1 trillion in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2011, CBO estimates—$66 billion less than the roughly $1.2 trillion deficit incurred through July 2010. Revenues were about 8 percent higher than they were at the same point last year, whereas outlays rose by less than 3 percent,â€