Will nightly newscasts report on RECORD BUDGET SURPLUS tonight?

1-12-06 | Gillmeister

[Gillmeister]

Taking bets on the odds of this happening tonight.

[Gillmeister]

Will be monitoring ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and the other liberal news shows to see if they report this.

[Bigh4u2]

Do you have a link to this I where I could read about the surplus?

[SF Republican]

Why did the Admin issue this great news on a holiday getaway Friday? thats a bad-news-to-report day

[buwaya]

Its not really a surplus, as the collection/outlay rates vary by quarter. What the CBO report really means is that we can expect a considerably smaller budget deficit for FY2006-07. This kind of thing is hard to explain on TV.

[oyez]

U.S. Federal Government reports largest budget surplus ever;

Women and minorities hardest hit.

[WhiteGuy]

Will nightly newscasts report on RECORD BUDGET SURPLUS tonight?


Of course not, because there is a deficit.....

the acknowledged deficit doesn't even include the "overpayment" by workers into the SS fund which is diverted into the general fund,

nor does it include the annual "emergency" funding for the "war?" in iraq.

[buwaya]

Its not a surplus -

Here is the original doc. It is good news.

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=7720&sequence=0

[UpAllNight]

Bush said a few days ago that we would not have a surplus for several years, 2012?

[DB]

There is no "surplus". Just the lowest deficit in four years - which isn't all that much to brag about...

[Joe 6-pack]

It will be trumpeted as perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the first 100 hours.

[buwaya]

It includes "overpayment" to the SS trust fund as well as emergency funds for Iraq.

Thats the only kind of deficit accounting that makes economic sense.

BTW, the SS "trust fund" is, economically, just a fiction. Its a way for accounting for benefits promises, thats all.

[UpAllNight]

The surplus is ONLY for December. We traditionally run surpluses in Dec due to the influx of quarterly payments, end of year bonus withholdings.

[UpAllNight]

--BTW, the SS "trust fund" is, economically, just a fiction. Its a way for accounting for benefits promises, thats all.--

There is a SS trust fund. It is just filled with IOU's.

[Bigh4u2]

Thanks.

[buwaya]

It will end up being pretty brag-worthy I think - the FY deficit will probably end up being well short of 2% of GDP, which means that GDP growth will be considerably faster than the growth of debt.

When ability to pay grows faster than debt, thats a good thing. The US was there unquestionably since FY2004-05.

Not as good as a balanced budget, but the real bleeding has stopped.

[buwaya]

All any government has is IOU's.

Thats not the problem.

[Jack Wilson]

It might be reported. But as bad news: a budget surplus means that money is just sitting there and not being spent on government programs.

[Right Wing Assault]

Caused by global warming, no doubt.

[jocko12]

No surplus,the demwits have not started taken the PORK yet.

[DB]

Until something goes boom again...