Federal Finances...Some Good, Some Bad

[ylexot]

Corporate Taxes, Gov't Spending Hit Records

The federal government posted the first budget surplus for December in three years as corporate tax payments hit an all-time high, helping offset a record level for spending, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.

The department said in its monthly budget report that government receipts surpassed spending by $10.98 billion last month. A year ago, the government ran a deficit of $2.85 billion in December.

The improvement reflected the fact that government receipts were up 12.1 percent from a year ago to $241.88 billion while government spending rose by a slower 5.6 percent to $230.9 billion. The figure for outlays still represented an all-time high for spending for any month.

Ok, some good stuff in there (more revenues...indicative of a stronger economy) and some bad stuff (record spending). But I was encouraged by this:

Treasury Secretary John Snow said this week that the administration plans to lower the deficit through stringent controls on spending, which he said would be evident in the budget proposal for 2007 that Bush will send to Congress in early February.

Witholding judgement, but hoping that "stringent controls" = budget cuts.

 

[Larry Gude]

Holding your breath?

Witholding judgement, but hoping that "stringent controls" = budget cuts.

I'll be happy if it means 'cut in the rate of growth".

There ain't gonna be no REAL cuts in nothing.

 

[Bruzilla]

I think that it's nothing short of amazing that the United States has posted a budget surplus during a time of war, especially one where there isn't a massive commandeering of the manufacturing sector by the DoD as we saw in WWII. Has this ever happened before?

 

[FromTexas]

I'll be happy if it means 'cut in the rate of growth".

There ain't gonna be no REAL cuts in nothing.

Well, there will be cuts in some areas to hold back total spending growth.

Although, caping spending growth at 3-4% and revenues increasing by 10-12% is a good thing. I will take that.

And to think, those tax cuts were supposed to keep us incurring *higher* deficits. Especially with Katrina, the war, etc... At least that is what the lefties said.