Deficit Drops $207 Billion…

…according to the C.B.O.'s 2012 estimates, which is great news for the Obama administration, and for you and I. The fiscal year ended on September 30, 2012.

   The federal deficit came in at slightly less than  $1.1 trillion,  compared to just under $1.3 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2011, a reduction of $207 billion.  The actual deficit numbers will be released later this month by the Treasury Department.

Total Receipts Were Up by 6 Percent in Fiscal Year 2012

Receipts in fiscal year 2012 totaled $2.5 trillion, $148 billion more than those in the same period last year. Compared with collections in fiscal year 2011:

Net receipts from corporate income taxes grew by $61 billion (or 34 percent), largely because of changes in tax rules in recent years.
Individual income tax receipts grew by $37 billion (or 3 percent), as wages and salaries grew modestly, pushing up withheld tax payments; nonwitheld tax payments rose as well.
Receipts from social insurance taxes rose by $32 billion (or 4 percent), reflecting greater withholding for payroll taxes and an increase in unemployment insurance taxes as states continued to replenish trust funds that were depleted by the recession.
Receipts from other sources increased, on net, by about $18 billion (or 9 percent).

By CBO’s estimates, outlays decreased for several major categories of spending:

Medicaid—Outlays fell by $24 billion (or 9 percent) because legislated increases in the federal share of the program’s costs expired in July 2011.
Unemployment benefits—Spending dropped by $30 billion (or 24 percent), mostly because fewer people have been receiving benefits in recent months.
Defense—Outlays fell by $19 billion (or 3 percent), after adjusting for timing shifts, in part because of lower spending for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Education programs—Net outlays were lower by $29 billion (or 30 percent), excluding changes recorded in the budget for the estimated cost of student loans. That decline has occurred largely because of waning spending from funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (Most of that spending occurred before 2012.)          SOURCE

   This is positive proof that the Obama Administrations policies are working despite the Republican obstruction in government over the past 4 years.

   Between last Fridays positive job growth report and this, do we need another reason to reelect Obama to a second term?

Technorati Tags: The Economy,Barack Obama,C.B.O.,B.L.S.,The U.S. Deficit,Current Events,2012 Elections

 

$75 Billion U.S. Surplus For September!! Democrats, As Usual, Better at Deficit Reduction

Hoomai29 at DKos gives us the rundown on a very good surplus from September.     

Sat Oct 06, 2012 

The climb out of Bush's almost impossibly deep hole is getting easier--not easy, but easier. Beyond the wonderful news that the 2012 deficit was $207 Billion less than projected as admirably covered in Vyan's diary, the US government was in the BLACK for September for just the second time since the economic crash of 2008.

We weren't just a little in the black either, we were $75 Billion dollars in the black!

According to the Congressional Budget Office the September $75 billion surplus was a good part of the reason that 2012 full-year fiscal deficit was $1.09 trillion, compared with a previous projection of a $1.327 trillion deficit for fiscal 2012 made by the CBO in February 2012.
The September surplus was just the second month in the black for the U.S. government since September 2008, when the country was in the throes of a financial crisis. The September data was buoyed by strong quarterly corporate income tax payments and $7 billion from the sale of shares in bailed-out insurer American International Group.The Reuters story also said the U.S. Deficit was "about 7 percent of U.S. economic output, down from 8.7 percent in 2011, 9 percent in 2010 and 10.1 percent in 2009." So, while we're not there yet, we are getting there-- steadily, intently and now a little faster than we anticipated.

But one of the often overlooked realities to the deficit reduction challenge is just how TERRIBLE the Republicans are at actually stopping deficit spending.

Zero for twenty? Yes. Zero for twenty! More after the fold.

Charts:

Republicans' $12 Trillion Dollar Debt

CBO 2012 Revenue and Expenditures Chart

Thank you for the Rec!

Since this diary's going to be around for a while, it's worth expanding it to look at Bill Clinton's DNC comments about Republicans and the deficit. (BTW, Bloomberg's fact checker found no significant errors with his speech.)

Here's what President Clinton said about the deficit he inherited from Bush Sr. and the surplus he passed on to President Bush the Junior.

"Don’t you ever forget when you hear them talking about this that Republican economic policies quadrupled the national debt before I took office, in the 12 years before I took office — (applause) — and doubled the debt in the eight years after I left, because it defied arithmetic."

But the lack of honesty about U.S. debt and their ongoing deficits is even more astonishing than President Clinton's remarks:

IN 2010 DOLLARS, NO REPUBLICAN, NOT REAGAN, NOT BUSH SR., NOT BUSH JR., HAS COME WITHIN $160 BILLION OF BALANCING A BUDGET SINCE GERALD FORD.

Republicans are zero for twenty since fiscal year 1978. (Democrats are 5 for 15 in balancing budgets during the same time. Carter balanced three budgets. Clinton balanced two, and was barely off in two more.)

In fact no Republican has balanced a budget since Dwight Eisenhower's last budget in 1961.

So when Romney starts talking about how he's going to balance the budget, here's our talking point.

Since 1978, Republicans and supply economics are zero for twenty in balancing budgets. There's no magic. It just doesn't, ever, work.

Technorati Tags: The U.S. Deficit,2012 Elections,C.B.O.,Surplus,The Democrat Party,Current Events,An American Gothic