U.S. Recorded a Budget Surplus in April

WSJ ^ | May 11, 2006 | BENTON IVES-HALPERIN

[Brilliant]

The federal government ran a monthly budget surplus of $118.85 billion in April, as tax receipts came in stronger than the same period last year.

Buoyed by income during the spring tax season, government ledgers in April swung into the black following March's deficit of $85.47 billion. Receipts in April were $315.09 billion, up 13% from $277.61 billion a year earlier, and the second highest on record, just below the $332 billion in April 2001.

The April total budget surplus was the fourth highest monthly surplus on record...

The Treasury estimates the U.S. government ran a budget deficit for the first seven months of fiscal 2006 -- October through April -- of $184.14 billion. That is down 22% from the fiscal year-to-date deficit a year earlier.

Officially, the White House has projected the budget deficit for the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, 2006, will total $423 billion, about one-third larger than last year.

But the CBO has projected a budget gap under $350 billion, and perhaps as low as $300 billion, for the full fiscal year, and private-sector forecasts also tend to show less red ink than the Bush administration's official outlook.

The CBO's full-year deficit projections have been revised down from an earlier $371 billion estimate.

Individual income tax receipts totaled $601.53 billion in fiscal 2006 through April, up 10% from the same period a year earlier, the Treasury said. Corporate taxes totaled $174.26 billion for the first seven months of the fiscal year, up 30% from the same period a year earlier.

[Red Badger]

Tax cuts obviously are not working. We must raise taxes to fix the deficit. Cut spending? Don't be absurd. That would never work..................

[Air Force Brat]

Headline: Ground wet after rainfall!

I mean - wouldn't this be expected. April? Don't most people have a positive checking account balance on pay day?

[OldFriend]

I have been hearing this on the news, both radio and TV, all morning long.

NOT

[spikeytx86]

I know this is not an accurate forecast of the deficit but dividing our current deficit by 7 then multiplying by 12 comes to around $316 Billion for the year or 2.5% of GDP.

As far as deficits go and especially figuring we are at war in 2 countries that is a pretty small deficit. If we were to freeze non defense spending at 2006 levels for the next 3 years and figuring on a conservative estimate of annual revenue growth of 5% a year we would have a balanced budget if not a small surplus by 2009. Democrats and RINO's always b*tch that the administration has never asked us to sacrifice, here would be the chance to call there bluff. Ask every American to make due with what we are spending now for the next 3 years so we can get our fiscal house in order. Of course it will never happen though. But it is nice to dream.

[safeasthebanks]

If you're implying this is because April 15th is "tax day", I'm not sure I follow. In fact I would think the opposite, as I believe (though not sure) most people manage their withholdings so as to get tax refunds.

Also, under your logic, wouldn't every April run a surplus, which certainly doesn't appear to be true.

Just wondering.

[steve-b]

People who are going to get some of their withheld money back have an incentive to file ASAP. People who are going to have to cough up even more money to the government have an incentive to wait until the last minute.

[Diverdogz]

I'm with you. Its hard to get excited about a very temporary 'surplus' when they are comptemplating raising the debt ceiling to nearly $10,000,000,000,000.00.

[safeasthebanks]

It's not temporary. The surplus for the month of April (which is what this article is about) will always be a surplus.

[hubbubhubbub]

Agree. Unbelieveable that this is news.

[KarlInOhio]

Also, under your logic, wouldn't every April run a surplus, which certainly doesn't appear to be true.

April 1983 was the last time we ran a deficit in April.

In general, we run surpluses in January, April, June and September - the four times estimated taxes are due.

Look at http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/ and especially http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts.pdf

Be careful with the figures. For some reason the last column has deficits as positive and surpluses as negative numbers.

[safeasthebanks]

THANKS so much. You don't know how much time I spent (in vain) searching for these exact numbers.