August 11, 2006
WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH THE SURPLUS?:
Tax receipts help lower federal deficit in July (Bloomberg News, August 11, 2006)
The Treasury Department on Thursday reported a 38 percent drop in the federal deficit in July compared to a year ago and said the shortfall for the full fiscal year is running well below last year's pace.The deficit in July totaled $33.2 billion, down sharply from $53.4 billion in July 2005, as tax collections rose and after some monthly outlays were moved to June.
Economists had been expecting a deficit of $40 billion for July.
Through the first 10 months of this budget year, the deficit totaled $239.7 billion, an improvement of 20.8 percent from the same period a year ago, reflecting a surge in government revenue from higher corporate and individual tax receipts.
We may already be reaching the point where we have too little debt to sustain the unprecedented current global growth.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 11, 2006 12:09 PM
Orrin
Agreed. The Federal deficit is falling primarily due to surging tax revenues rather than spending cuts. One of the best sources for information on this topic is:
http://www.optimist123.com/optimist/
By the way, I don't know the author or have any connection to the site. I just enjoy it and thought you might also.
He has a variety of useful tools, one of which is tracking the likely budget surplus date--now January 2009, if present trends (obviously a big if) continue. He also has lots of useful information on the national debt.
You don't need to cut spending, just keep it lower as a percentage of GDP than it was under Reagan.
Posted by: oj at August 11, 2006 3:41 PM