Federal surplus widens to $38.2 billion in Jan.

Market Watch ^ | 12 Feb. 2007 | Greg Robb

[RKV]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. federal budget surplus widened by 82% in January to $38.2 billion from $21 billion a year earlier, the Treasury Department reported Monday. The surplus is slightly below the Congressional Budget Office estimate of about $40 billion. Read more. January usually as a surplus month because many individuals must make estimated tax payments, analysts said. Receipts rose 13% year-over-year to a record $260.6 billion, while outlays increased 6% to $222.4 billion, the Treasury said. Individual income tax receipts totaled $154.5 billion in January. Corporate income tax receipts were $10.9 billion. For the first four months of the 2007 fiscal year, the deficit was $42.2 billion, about 57.2% lower than the $98.4 billion deficit in the same period in the previous fiscal year. For all of 2007, the CBO estimates a shortfall of about $200 billion, narrower than the $248 billion deficit in fiscal 2006. But analysts at RBS Greenwich Capital believe this forecast is too pessimistic. They look for a drop in the deficit to around $155 billion in the fiscal year. In a note to clients, RBS Greenwich said that unless the April 15 individual income tax receipts are disappointing, the Treasury will eliminate the 3-year note at the May refunding.

[RKV]

Hmmm. Guess those tax cuts do work. Maybe we should find the level that actually reduces revenue and make taxes even lower. Cut some spending too obviously.

[vetsvette]

Bush's fault!!

Whoops. X that out!

Nancy Pelosi's fault!!

[Kellis91789]

Are you kidding ?

Just the word 'surplus' has the new Dem Congress drooling at the thought of they could spend it on so they can blame it on "Bush's reckless deficit spending while giving tax cuts to the rich".

[Ken522]

If the CBO were to take away Social Security receipts, the "surplus" would evaporate ...

[hoosierham]

How can you have a $40 B surplus whilst owing $8 Trillion?

[lonestar67]

The government still would have taken in billions more than anticipated.

[kylaka]

Which, is part of the reason we have social security. It is just another tax.

[JaguarXKE]

How can you have a $40 B surplus whilst owing $8 Trillion?

It's because the former refers to the deficit and the later refers to the debt.

[ClearCase_guy]

"Well, yeah, but under Clinton we actually had a surplus!" [/dumb Lib]

[B4Ranch]

Can we roll up the welcome mat and build a wall now?

[elkfersupper]

How can you have a $40 B surplus whilst owing $8 Trillion?

The surplus is cash flow. The debt is the debt.

Debt service on the debt is a component of the cash flow. Other than that, the two are unrelated.

[RKV]

You know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet? That's how.

[RKV]

I wish.

[Revel]

Well the overall debt still keeps going up.
Right now at:

8,713,570,341,089.42

Of course the GOV just changed there debt to the penny page, and it does not work all the way so I can't show you that last week it was below 8.7 Trillion.

[RKV]

It ain't perfect, but you have to start somewhere. Getting revenues closer to expenditures is how we start.

[Sam Clements]

The current level of debt is, no doubt, far less than the value of the US economy. It is probably less than the value of assets owned by the government. I would be curious if anyone can confirm this. It would be irresponsible for the government to forgo things like road and harbor improvements and then to theoretically save some portion of tax receipts waiting for the day when enough tax money was collected to initiate some small components of improvement projects. Heck, most households have a large debt supported by the family home. Should you wait your whole life to save enough to buy a home?

[zeugma]

Federal surplus widens to $38.2 billion in Jan.,

Yet another lie courtesy of the MSM. 

[zeugma]

For more information than you can stand about the national debt going back to the founding of this republic, feel free to browse my national debt pages.

 

Here's the figures for the national debt by month since January of 1996...

01/03/2006	$8,153,881,581,212.99
02/01/2006	$8,183,138,191,456.56
03/01/2006	$8,269,768,312,946.41
04/03/2006	$8,377,471,102,607.82
05/01/2006	$8,351,568,193,125.12
06/01/2006	$8,342,863,384,478.03
07/03/2006	$8,399,337,620,229.53
08/01/2006	$8,436,303,577,225.15
09/01/2006	$8,519,182,246,789.42
10/02/2006	$8,548,384,110,614.28
11/01/2006	$8,571,794,835,082.73
12/01/2006	$8,635,596,937,286.06
12/04/2006	$8,640,011,284,371.05
12/05/2006	$8,655,346,750,831.25
12/06/2006	$8,653,798,995,165.17
12/07/2006	$8,653,958,645,369.67
12/08/2006	$8,655,403,967,590.98
12/11/2006	$8,655,354,638,698.21
12/12/2006	$8,660,431,306,934.19
12/13/2006	$8,656,874,660,862.22
12/14/2006	$8,648,806,491,911.59
12/15/2006	$8,611,902,658,304.21
12/18/2006	$8,614,313,849,348.28
12/19/2006	$8,622,133,605,291.62
12/20/2006	$8,618,993,492,897.24
12/21/2006	$8,610,004,258,890.22
12/22/2006	$8,611,647,146,451.50
12/26/2006	$8,615,421,211,450.74
12/27/2006	$8,614,757,210,943.36
12/28/2006	$8,593,076,179,156.67
12/29/2006	$8,680,224,380,086.18
01/02/2007	$8,678,229,324,205.41
02/01/2007	$8,694,902,769,091.18
02/12/2007	$8,713,972,160,077.30

How can there be a "surplus" if the debt is increasing?