U.S. Annual Budget Deficit Smallest in Nearly Seven Years

Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/09/2015 | NICK TIMIRAOS

[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,

[Eva]

You do realize that the deficit and the debt are not the same thing, don’t you?

All that a reduction in deficit means is that the debt grew at a slower rate. While a deficit reduction sounds good, it is really only less bad.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: You do realize that the deficit and the debt are not the same thing, don’t you?

All that a reduction in deficit means is that the debt grew at a slower rate.

______________________

Well yes, better than at a faster rate.

This gives us a little breathing room for a hopefully, clean 2 house, executive branch sweep in 2016 so that we can now seriously tackle the problem.

[Eva]

No, there is I breathing room, Obama still wants to raise the debt ceiling. The s budget proposal to not raise the debt ceiling is an attempt to excuse feckless GOP Old Guard for not trying to defund Planned Parenthood.

[griswold3]

I like your chart best. At least it reflects the actual 2001 non surplus.
(The budget showed a surplus BUT there was $77B deficit!!??)

[Pollster1]

I’m not a fan of lies, even when the selected accounting method is the source of the lie. If your debt is going up, you don’t have a surplus no matter what the accountants claim.

It’s like Planned Parenthood claiming only 3% of their procedures are abortion, when 94% of their interactions with pregnant women include an abortion and that is the majority of their revenue.