“monthly” surplus, despite that not being the number that matters:

The federal government ran a $21 billion budget surplus last month, the best January showing in four years, as both spending and tax receipts set records for the month.

The Treasury Department said the government spent $209 billion last month, a record amount for January and up 7.9 percent from January 2005. Government tax receipts, however, also set a record for the month of $230 billion, up 13.7 percent from January 2005.

You can tell how this could be exploited. Next thing you know you’d be seeing stories on the evening news raving about the “surplus” of last month, & in many minds the line between the end of defecit spending & a simple shift of spending to other months would be blurred.

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