Posted on 02/13/2018 5:10:08 PM PST by Kaslin
RUSH: “Feds Collect Record Taxes in First Month Under Tax Cuts.” When I saw this, I wondered how many people are gonna say, “Rush was right.” I wonder how many people are gonna say, “Rush told us this was gonna happen.” I wonder how many people are gonna remember for the last 30 years, “Yep. This is exactly what works every time it’s tried. Rush told us.” Quote:
“The federal government this January ran a surplus while collecting record total tax revenues for that month of the year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released [Monday]. January was the first month under the new tax law that President Donald Trump signed in December. During January, the Treasury collected approximately [Are you ready for this?] a$361,038,000,000 in total tax revenues…” So let’s round it off: $361 billion. They spent $312 billion. They ran a surplus of $49 billion, in the first month!
There’s already more revenue coming into the Treasury than anybody at the CBO or the Democrat Party or any K Street think tank projected. All they talked about was deficits. All they said was the Trump tax cut’s gonna blow the budget sky-high and create massive deficits. In one month! “Despite the monthly surplus of $49,236,000,000, the federal government is still running a deficit of approximately $175,718,000,000 for fiscal year 2018.” Okay. Fine. But since when did we have even a monthly surplus with Obama — or, as the British say, “Obamber.”
Ever notice that? With the Brits, there’s always an R at the end of his name. Obamber. I don’t know. I can’t quite imitate it. You pay attention, you’ll see it. So, my friends, “[t]he $361,038,000,000 in total taxes the Treasury collected this January was $11,747,870,000 more than the $349,290,130,000 that the Treasury collected in January of last year… So far in fiscal 2018, the federal government has collected a record [Are you ready for this?] $1,130,550,000,000 in total taxes.” That’s since October 1st, a record amount of revenue. But in January, a surplus.
They collected more than they spent, and in January’s when the tax cuts hit. Now, there’s some tweets from the AP. Trump presented his budget yesterday. Here’s AP’s tweet. Breaking news! Breaking news! “President Trump Sends Congress $4.4 trillion Spending Plan That Features Soaring Deficits.” Here is AP two years ago, when Obama presented his last budget, February 9th, 2016: Breaking news! Breaking news! “Obama Sends Record $4.1 Trillion Spending Plan to Congress to Combat Terror Threats and Global Warming.”
So when they report Obama’s $4.1 trillion budget, they highlight all the things that Obama’s gonna fix. He’s gonna end terrorism — he didn’t, did he? — and global warming. With Trump, “Sends Congress $4.4 trillion spending plan that features soaring deficits.”
And let’s go back one more year. Obama’s budget presented February 2nd, 2015. The AP tweet: “Breaking news. Obama sends $4 trillion spending plan to Congress, pledging help for the middle class.” These people, folks, I tell you are just incorrigible.
It’s a little misleading because it’s tax time. Tax collections are always up at tax time.
A little misleading is an understatment.
However, there’s no way to put it...Trump has been phenomenal on the economy.
I worry that the tax cuts were not tied to spending cuts...that could be a real problem going forward.
Yep, whatever Laffer effect we’ll realize from the tax cuts is not yet in evidence. The question is how much of the deficits coming forward, and the new spending, can the economic stimulus from the tax cuts offset.
“A little misleading is an understatement.”
That’s for sure. Read Lawrence Lindsey and you’ll get a different view than Rush’s Pop Economics version. Lindsey was one of the architects of Reagan’s tax program, the senior staff economist for tax policy at the CEA.
Reaganomics was designed with $2 in spending cuts for each $1 of tax reduction because the Reagan economists knew that revenues would go down- they predicted that economic growth would recoup some, but not all, of the predicted revenue loss. The actual reduction to the Treasury was about 33 cents for each dollar cut, growth recouping the other 2/3.
The only tax cut that “paid for itself” was the capital gains cut, which ironically was signed into law by Jimmy Carter.
We’re supposed to be happy about how much the filthy government sucked out of the American people?
Yeah, you’re right - raise the tax rates back to where they were - that’ll cut government's take, and that will increase freedom!
</sarcasm>
Exactly. The result will be a nice piece of pocket change added to the refunds people will get to file for in April, 2019.
The tax receipts in January came from estimated tax payments for 4th quarter 2017, i.e. the quarter that ended December 31, 2017.
Rush is mailing it in these days.
Trump collected a monthly surplus of $49 billion in January 2018.
However, Obama had a higher surplus than Trump had in January 2017 ($52 billion) and in January 2016 ($55 billion).
I performed the following calculations based on the U.S. Treasury data at this link:
https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/mthTreasStmt/mts0118.pdf
Comparing The First Four Months Of FY 2017 and FY 2018...
Total Tax Revenues
Obama - FY 2017 - $1.085 Trillion
Trump - FY 2018 - $1.131 Trillion
Total Spending
Obama - FY 2017 - $1.243 Trillion
Trump - FY 2018 - $1.306 Trillion
Four Month Deficit
Obama - FY 2017 - $158.6 Billion
Trump - FY 2018 - $175.7 Billion
Sorry, that's incorrect.
Rush got his numbers from CNSnews.com.
And CNS News got their numbers from this U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement:
https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/mthTreasStmt/mts0118.pdf
Please see my full analysis in the Comment just above this.
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