Deficit hits $63 billion in first two months of fiscal year

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government incurred a deficit of $63 billion in the first two months of fiscal 2002--the largest shortfall for the October-November period since 1997, the last time the government ran a deficit for an entire fiscal year.

In its monthly budget review for December, which came out Monday, CBO reported that in the first two months of fiscal 2001, the government ran a deficit of $35 billion.

CBO attributed the $28 billion increase in the two-month deficit to government spending in October and November of this year, which was $45 billion greater than during the same period last year, and more than swallowed the $17 billion in extra revenues collected in the first two months of fiscal 2002 compared to the same period at the start of fiscal 2001.

CBO attributed the extra spending to rising Medicaid costs and unemployment benefit claims, as well as higher spending on defense and aid to the airline industry, among other factors.