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Boosted by better tax collections and slightly slower spending, the government recorded a $58 billion surplus in April. That’s nearly a $100 billion turnaround from April 2011, when the government ran a $40 billion deficit.
The numbers suggest that the government’s short-term fiscal picture has improved slightly since the deepest days of the recession, when stimulus spending and tax cuts spilled red ink over the federal budget.
“Because of the large inflows of tax revenues, the federal government usually runs a budget surplus in April — though that did not occur in 2009, 2010 and 2011,” CBO said.
The brief spot of cheery news came even as all sides on Capitol Hill are working on next year’s spending bills, and House Republicans are pushing ahead with a measure that would change the automatic defense cuts slated for the end of this year and replace them with trims to social programs.
Mr. Obama, fighting for higher spending, issued his first spending veto threat of the year on Monday, saying he would reject House Republicans’ bill to fund the Commerce and Justice departments because it spends too little.
“Passing [the bill] at its current funding level would mean that when the Congress constructs other appropriations bills, it would necessitate significant and harmful cuts to critical national priorities, such as education, research and development, job training and health care,” the White House said in a statement of policy.
At the same time as the fight over the yearly spending bills, the House GOP on Monday took the first steps to undo the automatic defense cuts looming at the end of this year, which were triggered when the congressional supercommittee failed to come up with an agreement last year.
Moving to erase those defense cuts, House Republicans advanced a bill through the Budget Committee that would instead trim from food assistance, Medicaid and other benefits programs.
“There is no reason we cannot work together to replace the sequester,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, who said this year marked the first time since 2005 that the House was using the powerful budget-reconciliation process to try to overhaul entitlement programs.
But Democrats said it was unfairly targeting the poor, while leaving tax rates unchanged for the wealthy.
“Our Republican colleagues continue to reject that balanced approach to deficit reduction,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Deficit streak ends: Obama sees first monthly surplus - Washington Times
Boosted by better tax collections and slightly slower spending, the government recorded a $58 billion surplus in April. Thats nearly a $100 billion turnaround from April 2011, when the government ran a $40 billion deficit.
The numbers suggest that the governments short-term fiscal picture has improved slightly since the deepest days of the recession, when stimulus spending and tax cuts spilled red ink over the federal budget.
Because of the large inflows of tax revenues, the federal government usually runs a budget surplus in April though that did not occur in 2009, 2010 and 2011, CBO said.
The brief spot of cheery news came even as all sides on Capitol Hill are working on next years spending bills, and House Republicans are pushing ahead with a measure that would change the automatic defense cuts slated for the end of this year and replace them with trims to social programs.
Mr. Obama, fighting for higher spending, issued his first spending veto threat of the year on Monday, saying he would reject House Republicans bill to fund the Commerce and Justice departments because it spends too little.
Passing [the bill] at its current funding level would mean that when the Congress constructs other appropriations bills, it would necessitate significant and harmful cuts to critical national priorities, such as education, research and development, job training and health care, the White House said in a statement of policy.
At the same time as the fight over the yearly spending bills, the House GOP on Monday took the first steps to undo the automatic defense cuts looming at the end of this year, which were triggered when the congressional supercommittee failed to come up with an agreement last year.
Moving to erase those defense cuts, House Republicans advanced a bill through the Budget Committee that would instead trim from food assistance, Medicaid and other benefits programs.
There is no reason we cannot work together to replace the sequester, said the committees chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, who said this year marked the first time since 2005 that the House was using the powerful budget-reconciliation process to try to overhaul entitlement programs.
But Democrats said it was unfairly targeting the poor, while leaving tax rates unchanged for the wealthy.
Our Republican colleagues continue to reject that balanced approach to deficit reduction, said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Yes Repugs, it takes having more tax revenue, not more tax cuts to run a surplus and just like typical Repugs they want to trim social programs to balance a budget,
Deficit streak ends: Obama sees first monthly surplus - Washington Times
Boosted by better tax collections and slightly slower spending, the government recorded a $58 billion surplus in April. Thats nearly a $100 billion turnaround from April 2011, when the government ran a $40 billion deficit.
The numbers suggest that the governments short-term fiscal picture has improved slightly since the deepest days of the recession, when stimulus spending and tax cuts spilled red ink over the federal budget.
Because of the large inflows of tax revenues, the federal government usually runs a budget surplus in April though that did not occur in 2009, 2010 and 2011, CBO said.
The brief spot of cheery news came even as all sides on Capitol Hill are working on next years spending bills, and House Republicans are pushing ahead with a measure that would change the automatic defense cuts slated for the end of this year and replace them with trims to social programs.
Mr. Obama, fighting for higher spending, issued his first spending veto threat of the year on Monday, saying he would reject House Republicans bill to fund the Commerce and Justice departments because it spends too little.
Passing [the bill] at its current funding level would mean that when the Congress constructs other appropriations bills, it would necessitate significant and harmful cuts to critical national priorities, such as education, research and development, job training and health care, the White House said in a statement of policy.
At the same time as the fight over the yearly spending bills, the House GOP on Monday took the first steps to undo the automatic defense cuts looming at the end of this year, which were triggered when the congressional supercommittee failed to come up with an agreement last year.
Moving to erase those defense cuts, House Republicans advanced a bill through the Budget Committee that would instead trim from food assistance, Medicaid and other benefits programs.
There is no reason we cannot work together to replace the sequester, said the committees chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, who said this year marked the first time since 2005 that the House was using the powerful budget-reconciliation process to try to overhaul entitlement programs.
But Democrats said it was unfairly targeting the poor, while leaving tax rates unchanged for the wealthy.
Our Republican colleagues continue to reject that balanced approach to deficit reduction, said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Yes Repugs, it takes having more tax revenue, not more tax cuts to run a surplus and just like typical Repugs they want to trim social programs to balance a budget,
Oh blow it out your butt....
Come back when we see that he's actually doing something to get us out of debt! Of course it's going to look good in APRIL when everyone pays the TAXES! Lol!
There is NO SURPLUS as long as we're in debt as far as we are....
April? Hmm isn't that the month people pay their income taxes?
Do you think this trend can continue?
Deficit streak ends: Obama sees first monthly surplus - Washington Times
Yes Repugs, it takes having more tax revenue, not more tax cuts to run a surplus and just like typical Repugs they want to trim social programs to balance a budget,
Oh blow it out your butt....
Come back when we see that he's actually doing something to get us out of debt! Of course it's going to look good in APRIL when everyone pays the TAXES! Lol!
There is NO SURPLUS as long as we're in debt as far as we are....
A troll, man are yu stupid, the month of April has jack shat to do with it, he didn't have it the first couple of years in April.
April? Hmm isn't that the month people pay their income taxes?
Do you think this trend can continue?
people pay taxes every month of the year stupid and he just got his first surplus in April, makes your piggybacking off of that troll's argument look retarded.
April? Hmm isn't that the month people pay their income taxes?
Do you think this trend can continue?
people pay taxes every month of the year stupid and he just got his first surplus in April, makes your piggybacking off of that troll's argument look retarded.
cant argue with success.
oh wait that is what the right is doing
How does an ass clown that hasn't signed a budget into law in the last 3 years have a budget surplus? Sounds like typical Democratic horse shit to me.
Yes Repugs, it takes having more tax revenue, not more tax cuts to run a surplus and just like typical Repugs they want to trim social programs to balance a budget,
So, one month of deficit spend reduction during tax season and suddenly their is a surplus? No. First, there has to be a budget in order to have a budget surplus. Temporal adjustments to certain payments a surplus does not make. You also can not call surplus while adding 100 billion dollars tot he debt.
