Posted on 10/09/2015 8:46:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON—The U.S. budget deficit narrowed further in May as revenue continued to rise faster than expenses have in the past year, the Treasury Department said Wednesday.
The budget picture has improved this year amid higher tax revenue and stronger economic growth, even though government spending has also increased. Revenue for the fiscal year, which began in October, is running 9% ahead of the year-earlier levels, while government spending is up 6%.
In the past 12 months, the budget deficit has fallen to $412 billion, down from $460 billion in April and $491 billion a year earlier. That marks the lowest 12-month deficit since August 2008.
The brighter budget outlook means the deficit could come in below projections made by analysts just a few months ago. The Congressional Budget Office forecast in March that the federal deficit would rise to $486 billion this year, from $485 billion last year.
The U.S. ran an $82 billion deficit in May, a month in which the government has almost always run a deficit in recent decades. The government collected $212 billion in receipts, up 6% from a year earlier, and spent $295 billion, essentially unchanged after adjusting for calendar differences.
The improving finances haven’t so far altered gridlock in Congress, where Democrats say that Republicans’ insistence that the government adhere to spending curbs for non-defense spending in next year’s budget could lead to a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.
President Barack Obama has said that spending should rise above the across-the-board caps—known in Washington parlance as the sequester—that Congress agreed to four years ago and that any increases in the defense budget should be matched by increases in other domestic spending.
Republicans in Congress last month finalized a budget resolution, which doesn’t require presidential approval,
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Stock market and real estate fueling huge increases in tax revs
5 more guys in the unemployment line unless Russia already got them.
GOP majorities at least retarding the rate of growth in government.
This ain’t your daddies Wall St Journal.
On the other hand since I won’t subscribe I love only read the excerpt.
still vastly negative.
Like saying you weigh 500 pounds today after losing 5 pounds this year.
At the bottom of the last recession, the deficit was $1.4 Trillion.
What will it be next time around?
Lowest deficit, unemployment at 5.1%—no inflation—wow—can they possibly lie any more blatantly about what is really going on?
In short, the government has shortchanged the employed who can barely afford to feed, clothe, or house their families through high taxation so that America can be transformed into a socialist hellhole where the Washington elites go to $25,000 plate campaign fundraisers, drive $100K + vehicles, wear watches that cost more than some people earn in a year and suits that cost more than some people earn in a month while living in mansions and pointing fingers at tea party members calling them domestic terrorists. Got it.
Bush's spending was reckless and irresponsible. Still,
as bad as he was, Obama has him beat by a huge margin.
Hmmm?
Can anyone in Big Media answer that question?
When that bubble pops again, it's going to make the last one look like a walk in the park.
You want me to believe that spending more than ever has brought us a lower deficit?
Are you serious?
I’m not a mathematician, but I can tell you there’s something wrong with the Wall St Journal’s numbers.
whooHoo! We are going bankrupt more slowly! Time to beak out those new Capital One credit cards!
Remember when the MSM use to scream about $200 billion dollar deficits? Now $400 billion dollar deficits are wonderful.
Presidential budgets are dead on arrival. Congress creates budgets, and deficits are the result of voting Democrats out of control of Congress.
Which is why the Fed is scared to defuse this ticking time bomb it has created. It would rather let housing prices and stocks inflate to the bubble levels; hoping to make it thru the day. So far it has worked, more or less. They've managed to paper over real inflation with phony numbers to pretend their is no inflation (anybody checked the price of steak lately?). Housing and rents have exceeded 10% per year increases in many metro areas, driven up by foreign cash buyers. Yup, everything is just grand.
If the rest of the budget was cut like Defense we would have a surplus.
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