The U.S. government posted a smaller budget deficit in August compared with the same month last year, helped by rising tax receipts.
The excess of spending over revenue totaled $90.5 billion last month, smaller than the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News and down 13 percent from $103.6 billion in August 2009, according to a Treasury Department report issued today in Washington. The gap for the fiscal year that started in October was $1.26 trillion compared with $1.37 trillion last year at the same time.
The secret the Republicans don't mention is that the deficit in 2009 was the responsibility of George W. Bush who signed the budget for that year.