119 Billion in one month is a good thing for our country! So why all the gripes? Partisan politics doesn't fit in the budget...

Wil,

Only half the story, my man. This is what happened in March:

The March shortfall between government income and spending was up from a $71.21 billion deficit in March 2005. While it was a record for any March, it was less than the February 2006 monthly deficit that was a record for any one-month period at $119.20 billion.

The March deficit figure easily outstripped Wall Street economists' forecasts for a $73 billion shortfall.

Department officials said March spending was exceptionally large because some benefit payments that normally would occur in April were made in March.

In March, all the lefties were saying I Told You So about the size of the deficit. But it was huge because of accelerated payments for April. So now April has a surplus because their payments were already made in March. So let's add the two to take away any confusion:

$119B (April Surplus) - $79B (March Shortfall) = $40B two month surplus.

So not only did this shut up the moonbattery of March, but is also a more accurate way of showing that revenues are outpacing spending despite the fact that our legislators think they are Paris Hilton on a shopping Spree in NYC.

Now the real question is to note how much publicity the March numbers got compared to the April numbers. Everyone was talking about March, but no one is talking about April. When in fact the true story is made by talking about both in conjunction with one another. And that is the problem with politics. You only hear your side's half of the story.

Great point. I am excited about April's numbers, but I have seen some people erroneously suggesting that those numbers alone are grounds for declaring victory over deficits. Not so much. But it's still great news. Doing a rolling average is almost always a great idea when dealing with economic data.

Damn, and then I go and grab the wrong part of the blockquote. =)

Even taking the entire year of 2006, the deficit is not as bad as the Dems hoped. Still on pace to be around $400B, but two years ago when the tax cuts were made, it was supposed to be over $550B.

Actually, it'll be way shy of 400 billion. We're already 7/12 of the way through the fiscal year. From May through September, much less spending happens. In fact, we can probably expect 3 deficit months and 2 surplus months from here to the end of FY2006. The surplus months won't cancel out the deficit months, but they will bring us in in the 200-300 billion dollar range.

Hey, I just stuck a post over at Rob Port's blog about exactly that. Notice how the media loves year over year comparisons when they show a negative. We are $40B ahead of last year. They love projections when they look negative too. But the exact same story for both months from reuters was twice as long discussing March's numbers and doomsday scenario.

FY2006 had an estimated deficit of $413B when the year started. It was almost $500B two years ago. But revenue growth, despite tax cuts, is making all of these dire projections come in false. And as a percentage of GDP, even if the deficit stays the same at $300B plus or minus, it is shrinking in a massive way because of the 5% GDP growth from the tax cuts.

So higher tax revenues from the GDP Growth, higher GDP growth rates from the tax cuts, and a deficit that is shrinking as a percentage of GDP due to growing GDP and simultaneously growing revenue. How is that possible? VOODOO Economics! And I thought the Bush Administration was all Conservative Christians.

Someone threw the infamous Clinton-era surplus argument at me a while back, and my only response is that the last thing we want to end up with is surplus. Is that correct? I mean, it costs the Government more than it's worth to try to figure out what to do with it, right? Give it back to the taxpayers then - I guess.

So the hell what?

I am still paying $2.89 a gallon for gas.

Good to see that someone still believes something is good happening in America.

Quit crying about gas prices. I still see suvs. Thats the market at work. You have choices to make. Drive less. Move closer to work. Carpool. Use public transportation. If you are not making changes, I guess you can afford the gas brother.

Seth