Tax Receipts Exceed Treasury Predictions

[Freddie Stubbs]

Early Surge Lowers Deficit Projections

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 5, 2005; Page E01

After three years of rising federal budget deficits, a surge of April tax receipts brought unexpected good news to fiscal policymakers -- the tide of government red ink appears to be receding.

The Treasury Department this week reported there would be a $54 billion swing from projected deficit to surplus in the April-to-June quarter, after an unanticipated gush of tax payments poured into the Treasury before the April 15 deadline. That prompted private forecasters to lower their deficit projections for the fiscal year that ends in September.

Budget analysts inside and outside the government said the positive turn is likely to be short-lived. Indeed, after a four-year absence, the Treasury Department announced yesterday it is considering reissuing its 30-year Treasury bond to help finance long-term government debt, jolting the bond markets and pushing down the price of existing 30-year securities.

But in the short term, many forecasters said the budget deficit appears to have crested.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/04/AR2005050402134.html

[FlemingsGhost]

1. Jonathan Weisman should be ashamed of himself.

Whore.

[Psephos]

2. I read the article; don't see why Weisman should be ashamed

No offense intended, but he's the reporter, and the article really isn't offering his opinions.

OTOH, plenty of reason for * and Treasury officials to be ashamed....

Peace.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. Ashamed about what?

Did you find any errors in the article? :shrug:

[global1]

3. Hope * Don't Read This - He'll Just Think He Has More Money To Spend. n/t

[FloridaPat]

4. It's only for the quarter. We still have the rest of the year to go.

[johnnyrocket]

5. Oh, crap, Bush is gonna push more tax cuts for the rich...

you know, he's for 'tax cuts' for 'tax payers'. As if the middle class doesn't pay taxes.

[Up2Late]

6. Oh, Yeaaaaaaaa, Surplus? Time to go on a spending binge

Naa, this happens almost every April, it the other 11 month that never balance.:argh:

[ngGale]

8. With this "Surplus" then they should have no problem....

giving back the state's funding for Medicare and Medicaid.

Yeah, right! The annual lie to soothe the people.

[SoCalDem]

7. Nope.. just someone new "cooking the books", that's all

These bogus "happy-happy-joy-joy" stories are no accident..

[underpants]

10. They got $4K of our "middle class" money

up a grand from last year.

[orwell]

11. Fake Forcast

Part of the "strategery" was to put the deficit projections higher than what was really anticipated so that when they came in lower they could declare victory.

The fact is the deficit trend is still up with no end in sight. The treasury as much as said this with the declaration about issuance of the 30 year just yesterday, in marked contrast to John Snow's lies all over the financial press just a few weeks ago saying that they had no intention of reissuing the 30 year.

For the most part, if it comes from the Bushies, it is an obfuscation, an attempt to mislead, or an outright lie.

[shanti]

12. problem is that it will be sucked out

faster than you can say, "i told you so"! money in, money out.

[Roland99]

13. Today on Rush Limbaugh...

Lish Rimjob was blathering about how good the "surplus" is. Something along the lines of "We must have had a great first quarter for tax revenue to be up so much."

[fob]

14. A surge of tax receipts in April? What a fucking miracle! That MBA

bush* "earned" is working wonders. I bet there will be a decent uptick in tax receipts in August too, you know right around August 15 when those who filed for an extension are given that new deadline. It most likely won't create a "surplus" for the month but I sure hope bush* gets credit for it anyway.

/stupidpropagandafromthe"librul"mediaplease

[gratuitous]

15. You're all welcome

I paid in my extra $3,000+ in April, to help make that projected $54 billion swing.

Naturally, that "swing" moves us for the quarter from deficit to surplus so the surplus is something less than $54 billion in a budget of over a trillion dollars. Not very significant. However, my reading of the article is that if this is about numbers from the fiscal year budget instead of actual spending, then it doesn't take into account the supplemental appropriation Congress made for Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this year, so that offset actually means we're still in deficit for the year, not surplus.

In order to torture out a "surplus" and generate some good news for Chimpy, the Treasury Department had to pretend that the supplemental appropriation hadn't happened. It's sort of like saying "You know, I could have put $500 into savings except for that broken leg I sustained in March. If I hadn't had to pay out $5,000 for the medical bills, I would have shown a gain for the year." When your windfall is totally eaten up by unbudgeted expenses, you don't have a surplus.