The Incredible Shrinking Budget Deficit

There’s a pattern in the mainstream Democrat-cheering media these days. Just like the poll numbers that go unreported when Bush is ahead of Kerry, they remain curiously muffled on economic good news.
Larry Kudlow, at NRO;

If it’s not bad enough that rapid economic recovery has neutered Sen. Kerry’s principal domestic criticism of President Bush, now comes even worse news for the Democratic campaign: The budget deficit is starting to substantially shrink.
The latest budget numbers show a $19.1 billion surplus for June, $3 billion higher than the $16 billion Wall Street expectation. It seems that a flood of new tax collections, spurred by fatter employment payrolls and corporate profits, is rapidly reducing the federal budget gap. Tax receipts from businesses rose an astonishing 38 percent over the past twelve months and personal income-tax collections increased almost 9 percent. What’s happening? Could it be that stronger economic growth from lower tax rates is producing more tax receipts? I believe it’s called supply-side economics.
Just as the 1.5 million new jobs created since last August has terminated talk of a jobless recovery, the chatter over widening budget deficits will end. The fiscal-year 2004 budget deficit now looks to come in around $435 billion, less than 4 percent of GDP. This would be almost $100 billion below early-year estimates from the Office of Management and Budget and about $50 billion less than Congressional Budget Office forecasts. The administration is also getting its arms around federal spending. Fiscal year to date, domestic discretionary program spending has slowed to 2.7 percent from 6.8 percent a year ago.

This will come as surprising news to Canadians, who have been sold on the notion that tax cuts undermine revenue. Or, at least it would if there was a snowball’s chance in Hell that they’ll hear about it.
hat tip – The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

2 Replies to “The Incredible Shrinking Budget Deficit”

  1. Which way are the rafts headed?

    July 2 – Bill Whittle recently suggested that we observe “which way the rafts are headed” when we read and hear America-bashers. His point was that the immense numbers of people trying to get into the USA by any and…

  2. In fact, much of Kudlow’s analysis is deeply flawed. For example, the 38 percent increase in corporate tax revenues puts them just 9.3 percent above the prior high that they reached in June of 2000. Hence, most of that 38 percent increase is simply a recovery from the crash of corporate tax receipts that occurred in 2001 through 2003. You can see a full analysis of Kudlow’s editorial at the link attached to this message ( http://home.att.net/~rdavis2/kudlow1.html ).

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