For some reason, this got very little ink:

U.S. Dec budget posted surplus — Congress analysts 1/7/05 12:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) — The U.S. government ran a $1 billion budget surplus in December, helped by a rise in corporate tax payments, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest budget report released on Friday.

The surplus, which compared with an $18 billion deficit in the previous December, helped create a smaller fiscal deficit for the first three months of the 2005 fiscal year, than in the same quarter of the prior year.
 
 
Clarice Feldman   1 12 05