Federal Government breaks 40-month losing streak, posts surplus month

dclary · May 7, 2012

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/7/deficit-streak-ends-obama-first-monthly-surplus/

For the first time since President Obama took office, the United States government brought in more money than it spent. The deficit is down, spending is down, tax revenues are up (although not quite as much as predicted).

Will the trickle-down austerity-government plan work? In France, they just ousted the once-popular leader who promised to bring the nation's economic rudder back to even keel (do any of these nautical analogies work together? I have no idea). It's still early -- will the American people feel their economic burden lift before November?

Obama still has time to pull this around. He was a master of the hopeful message in 2008, but his message today sounds more and more like the defeatist "Hey, better the devil you know."

Election year is the best soap opera on television. Let the Melodrama Olympics begin!

Gregg · May 7, 2012

I hope its good news.
But don't forget that April 15th was tax due day.
The 15th was the only day of the year that I willfully sent money to the Feds. Directly or indirectly.

Don · May 7, 2012

Gregg said:
I hope its good news.
But don't forget that April 15th was tax due day.
The 15th was the only day of the year that I willfully sent money to the Feds. Directly or indirectly.

Yeah, there was this part:

“Because of the large inflows of tax revenues, the federal government usually runs a budget surplus in April — though that did not occur in 2009, 2010 and 2011,” CBO said.

So to put things in perspective, things may perhaps be somewhat less dismal than they were the last three Aprils.

Magdalen · May 7, 2012

Don said:
Yeah, there was this part:

So to put things in perspective, things may perhaps be somewhat less dismal than they were the last three Aprils.

Well, you know what they say --

Ridin' high in April, shot down in May

and for me that's true, but here's a musical interlude to distract you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM

Williebee · May 7, 2012

And, it is worth remembering that a surplus month does not make up for the years of national debt. But, at least it is the graph moving in the right direction.

muravyets · May 7, 2012

Like Williebee said. Considering the downward slide the country was already in when Obama took office, all this report does, as far as I can see, is confirm that unemployment is in fact going down. That's a good thing. I say let's keep doing whatever we're doing. Four more years, and all that.

Bu it hardly means we're out of the red.

Priene · May 8, 2012

Williebee said:
And, it is worth remembering that a surplus month does not make up for the years of national debt. But, at least it is the graph moving in the right direction.

In economic terms, national debt is only a problem if there are problems raising money to finance it, as when bonds become due future governments have the option of issuing further ones. The only major concern would be a long-term upward drift in interest rates, which is far from the case in the United States.

Dodge · May 8, 2012

From zerohedge - As the CBO admits: "This April, the Treasury realized a surplus of $58 billion, CBO estimates, in contrast with the $40 billion deficit reported for the same month last year. The results in both years were influenced by timing shifts of certain payments; adjusted for those shifts, the surplus in April 2012 would have been $27 billion, compared with a deficit of $13 billion in April 2011.... The federal government incurred a budget deficit of $721 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2012, $149 billion less than the shortfall reported during the same period last year. Without shifts in the timing of certain payments, however, the deficit so far this year would have been only $92 billion smaller." In other words, without various temporal adjustments, the April surplus of $58 billion would have been completely netted out by the cumulative $57 billion in deficit time shifts.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-posts-first-budget-surplus-42-months-and-it-less-meets-eye

Don · May 8, 2012

Dodge said:
From zerohedge - As the CBO admits: "This April, the Treasury realized a surplus of $58 billion, CBO estimates, in contrast with the $40 billion deficit reported for the same month last year. The results in both years were influenced by timing shifts of certain payments; adjusted for those shifts, the surplus in April 2012 would have been $27 billion, compared with a deficit of $13 billion in April 2011.... The federal government incurred a budget deficit of $721 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2012, $149 billion less than the shortfall reported during the same period last year. Without shifts in the timing of certain payments, however, the deficit so far this year would have been only $92 billion smaller." In other words, without various temporal adjustments, the April surplus of $58 billion would have been completely netted out by the cumulative $57 billion in deficit time shifts.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/us-posts-first-budget-surplus-42-months-and-it-less-meets-eye

Creative Accounting FTW! What's good for Enron is good for the USA!

Dodge · May 8, 2012

Creative accounting indeed. If it's good enough for Enron, Democrats, and Republicans too then it's good enough for me and you.

What's our austerity package gonna' be like when the time comes?

Federal Government breaks 40-month losing streak, posts surplus month

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

Gregg

Life is good

Don

All Living is Local

Magdalen

Petulantly Penitent

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

muravyets

Old revolutionary

Priene

Out to lunch

Dodge

Sparks fly off my pages!

Don

All Living is Local

Dodge

Sparks fly off my pages!