Informant38

The most dramatic drop in tax revenue since 1946 has put the government into deficit for the next three years and has shriveled the projected 10-year federal budget surplus by 60 percent in just five months, the Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday.

The CBO's influential midyear budget forecast underscores the deterioration of the government's fiscal health. As recently as March, congressional forecasters had predicted the government would run a much larger surplus -- $2.4 trillion -- than the $1 trillion total that the CBO now foresees between 2003 and 2012. That number has shrunk because of a plunge in tax receipts, the likes of which has not been seen since the repeal of World War II surtaxes 56 years ago, said CBO Director Dan L. Crippen.

Washington Post