Budget surplus shrinks, could vanish next year

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush White House is planning Monday to release new figures for the just-ended fiscal year that show the slowing U.S. economy siphoned nearly $30 billion from a projected budget surplus, administration officials told CNN.

The revised surplus will be close to $130 billion for the 2001 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, two officials said Sunday. That's precipitously less than August projections, when the White House announced it anticipated a $158 billion surplus.

The slowing economy accounted for virtually all of the revenue loss, the officials said. A joint release Monday from the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget will explain that lower corporate and personal income tax revenue led the decline, they said.

Next year could be far worse. Budget Director Mitch Daniels has indicated that slowing corporate and personal income tax revenue, combined with an explosion government domestic spending in response to the September 11 terror attacks, could force the government to run deficits of up to $20 billion in 2002.