Budget Deficit Drops to $250 Billion

AP ^ | October 6, 2006 | ANDREW TAYLOR

[West Coast Conservative]

The federal budget estimate for the fiscal year just completed dropped to $250 billion, congressional estimators said Friday, as the economy continues to fuel impressive tax revenues.

The Congressional Budget Office's latest estimate is $10 billion below CBO predictions issued in August and well below a July White House prediction of $296 billion.

The improving deficit picture _ Bush predicted a $423 billion deficit in his February budget _ has been driven by better-than-expected tax receipts, especially from corporate profits, CBO said.

[SDGOP]

We could have a surplus and the democrats would still whine

[NeoCaveman]

Only 2% of GDP, not too shabby.

0 is of course, better.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Nancy Pelosi will probably say:

Once again the Republicans have lied to the country, telling us that the budget deficit was 296 billion, when in fact it was only 250 billion.

Funny, out of control spending by the Republicans are causing this.

[groanup]

Only 2% of GDP, not too shabby.

I believe the average of the last 40 years was 2.7%. There is an editorial in today's Wall St. Journal about the "tax tidal wave" due to Bush's tax cuts. This deficit number is in spite of the fact that spending has increased by almost 50% in the last 6 years.

Lower taxes create revenues ala Arthur Laffer. The best kept secret in Washington.

[CharlesWayneCT]

So we've almost cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, mostly by increased revenue rather than cutting rediculous spending, but it's a start.

[CATravelAgent]

Sorry, the cynic in me says that this is smoke and mirrors from the Arthur Anderson school of accounting. What I want to read about is congress cutting budgets, especially at HEW.

[KarlInOhio]

Do those figures include everything, or is a couple hundred billion hidden in off-budget spending?

[LASVEGASBRETT]

Now we need to find 250,000,000,000 to cut in the budget. Lets start with welfare and other needless social programs.

[MikeA]

Still too much, but the direction is encouraging. End the Katrina spending and cut out the pork in further transportation budgets and we'll be close to balance.

[MikeA]

And enough Katrina spending. Time for Louisiana to take it from here. I say after December 31st, they're cut off. NOLA isn't worth saving anyway.

[RightWhale]

A while ago I read the Federal budget report for 1800. It had something like $1 million in expenditures and a surplus coming in. They were so worried about having all the excess money around attracting thieves and other politicians that they became desperate for ways to spend it.

[LASVEGASBRETT]

Bush is trying to look good to the people down there. here is the thing, they will never like him and will always refer to him as a racist.

[art_rocks]

Women and minorities haredest hit.

[adorno]

Now we need to find 250,000,000,000 to cut in the budget. Lets start with welfare and other needless social programs.

Woudn't the budget be balanced if we dropeed the sr. citizens drug program we just passed 2 years ago? What's that, 100 billion dollars per year? We should just let Wal-Mart and Target take care of the sr. citizens' needs with their $4/month drug programs. The U.S. can help a little bit but the help would not amount to the trillon dollar package of just 2 years ago.

[Dilbert56]

It's a good statisitc to know because a lot of our political foes are still stuck on talking points like "ballooning deficits". The deficit isn't growing, it's shrinking. Once it goes away, we can start working on the national debt. Also, it's shrinking because receipts are up. To those who claim we "can't afford" the tax cuts, look at the growth they caused. We couldn't afford not to cut taxes. We'd still be in a recession.

Note that when the deficit peaked, the President said we would cut it in half by the time he left office. It looks like we'll be a year early.

[100-Fold_Return]

"We could have a surplus and the democrats would still whine"

HEY DIMS!!!! Let's see if we can recall the mantra, "IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!"

That was candidate Clinton's chant, right!??

[LASVEGASBRETT]

I like that idea a lot. Remember Bush seems to be very insecure trying to win friends that will never like him

[caresistance]

Still a large deficit, to be added to a 7 trillion debt. The national debt continues to rise, even when Clinton lied about surpluses. Very unimpressed, show me a surplus that pays down some debt, that would be a freakin miracle!

[Kay]

Actually, as Dennis Miller says:

“The beautiful thing about Bush is that you always know where you can find him,” Miller said. “That approval rating could go up to 70 or go down to zero, and he ain’t changing. . .

Bush is not in a flimsy popularity contest. He wants to do the right thing.