Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Other Surge

The other surge, of revenues that is. WSJ:
The myth persists in some media circles that the federal budget deficit is "surging" or ballooning or something terrible -- all of which is served up as ammunition for those in Congress who want a tax increase. At the risk of being drummed out of the guild, we thought you'd rather have the real story.

The deficit has in fact declined by some $165 billion over the past two fiscal years, and according to the most recent data has continued to fall in the first quarter of fiscal 2007. The latest Treasury estimates for January show that tax receipts in December were $18 billion higher than a year earlier, helping to boost the budget surplus for the month to $40 billion, up from $11 billion a year ago. December is typically a good month for revenues due to year-end tax payments.

And "the rich" were productive, earning more and paying more. Sorry Democrats. Of course, if it had anything to do with you, you'd claim credit, uh, take responsibility, uh no, not in your vocabulary.

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