U.S. federal gov't budget deficit tops 260 million dollars in December

 　　WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government ran a budget deficit¹ of 260 million U.S. dollars in December, the Treasury² Department figures revealed Friday.

　　The federal government raked in a revenue of 269.5 billion dollars in December, up 12 percent from the level of December 2011, while spending 269.7 billion dollars, down 17 percent from December 2011, said the department.

　　The budget gap for the first three months of the 2013 fiscal³ year, which began on Oct.1, totaled 292 billion dollars, 9 percent lower than in the first three months of the prior fiscal year.

　　The U.S. federal government budget deficit reached 1.1 trillion dollars in the 2012 fiscal year ending in September, surpassing the 1-trillion-dollar mark for the fourth straight year.

　　The White House and Congress struck a deal last week to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a combination of the year-end tax hikes and automatic spending cuts. The last-minute agreement would raise taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans and allow a payroll⁴ tax cut of 2 percentage points to expire. The deal also postponed⁵ for two months the implementation⁶ of spending cuts that were originally scheduled to take effect in January.

　　The U.S. federal government technically⁷ reached its borrowing limit on Dec. 31. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Congress last month that the Treasury Department would take " extraordinary measures" to create about 200 billion dollars of " headroom" to avoid a possible default.

1 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

2 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

4 payroll   

n.工资表，在职人员名单，工薪总额

参考例句：

• His yearly payroll is $1.2 million.他的年薪是120万美元。
• I can't wait to get my payroll check.我真等不及拿到我的工资单了。

5 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

6 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

7 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。