U.S. June budget surplus $117 billion: Treasury

[Shrek]

Source: MarketWatch

The U.S. federal government ran a budget surplus of $117 billion in June, the Treasury Department reported Thursday, as receipts rose and spending fell compared to the same month a year ago.


Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-june-budget-surplus-117-billion-treasury-2013-07-11-1491013?link=MW_home_latest_news

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Improving economy? Sequester?

Both?

[msongs]

1. more proof that austerity works, so let's get even more austerity :-) nt

[tridim]

3. Would you prefer a massively rising deficit that Republicans always deliver?

I know you exist on DU to bash Obama and diminish his achievements at every turn, but damn dude... Sometimes good news is just good news.

[msongs]

4. austerity policies are slashing the deficit, so more would be better if slashing the defecit is the

goal.

[demwing]

6. At what cost? THINK!

I can reduce my credit card debt through austerity. I'll just stop buying food, paying rent, and paying taxes. My caredit card debt will drop, but I will fucking die.

Just because Austerity can reduce the deficit, doesn't mean austerity is desirable, good, logical, humane, or even the best option available.

Why, after 30k posts at DU, does this need to be explained to you? Did your empathy break?

[yodermon]

27. after 30k posts I would expect it's sarcasm n/t

[tridim]

17. Do you consider raising taxes on the rich "austerity"?

Because that is the primary reason we're seeing the deficit shrink.

[DCBob]

8. Its nothing to do with austerity.. its moslty rising tax revenues and Fannie/Freddie improving.

Here's a better article with more details..

"An improving economy and tax hikes enacted earlier in theyear led government receipts to rise to $287 billion, up 10percent from a year earlier.

Also driving the surplus in June, state-backed mortgagecompanies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out bytaxpayers in the wake of the financial crisis but have sincereturned to profitability, poured billion of dollars into publiccoffers.

Fannie Mae, which said in May it would return $59 billion tothe Treasury in dividends, provided most of the funds."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-posts-117-billion-budget-180018328.html

[denverbill]

16. Which explains why Republicans want to privatize Fannie/Freddie.n/t

[Igel]

19. In this case it's reimbursement.

Where I worked, this kind of thing wouldn't have been credited as revenue but as negative expenses if it happened in the same year. Heck, even if it happened in different years.

$59 billion of a previous year's deficit was erased. In this case, it's from something like 4 years ago. So that huge, huge deficit wasn't actually (all things considered) as huge as it was on paper. On the other hand, it means that this surplus isn't as huge as it is on paper, either.

It has a levelling effect. Reduces an old, huge deficit; reduces a current, although not so huge, increase in revenues.

TARP had the same kind of effect. It swelled the 2009 deficit by something like $400 billion or $500 billion; then when it was repaid it had the effect of reducing the deficit by the same amount. It makes early years look worse than they turned out to have been; and subsidizes current spending (or revenues) with money that isn't really income.

[DCBob]

31. I would call it return on investment.

[DallasNE]

22. Austerity Is A Small Part Of It

Not part of austerity is the end to both the payroll tax cut and the new higher bracket for really high earners, higher employment ( increased tax collections), lower unemployment benefits and decreased Medicare costs from Obamacare. The sequester is $85 billion and 1/12 of that is $7.1 billion or about 6%. What this really shows is that you don't need to inflict the pain of sequester type cuts in order to get a favorable outcome -- kind of like happened when Clinton was President. While we are not there yet, for a variety of reasons, doing more would risk stalling out the economy and increasing the deficit.

[truthisfreedom]

2. Blame it on Barry!

GObama!

[MrSlayer]

5. Well sure. Cutting unemployment benefits and food stamps…

and senior services and so forth is always going to save money.

What else should we chop? I'll bet if we eliminate WIC, Medicare and welfare entirely we'll save a bundle.

And the stock market just went to a record high.

Oh joy!

Now how does this translate into jobs?

Oh right, it doesn't.

[jtuck004]

7. 50 million people in poverty, near that on food stamps, closes in on 100 million if you just up the

figure to 200% of poverty, and we want to be happy that we can count our stacks of gold?

Has Uncle Sam been killed off by Scrooge McDuck?

[geek tragedy]

9. Improving economy. The deficit would fall even faster if the stupid sequester

wasn't hindering growth.

[SunSeeker]

18. +1

[Lasher]

24. Correct.

Sorry to oppose the prevailing sentiment here, but I think a budget surplus is a good thing.

[DCBob]

10. Here's a better article explaining the reasons..

"An improving economy and tax hikes enacted earlier in theyear led government receipts to rise to $287 billion, up 10percent from a year earlier.

Also driving the surplus in June, state-backed mortgagecompanies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were bailed out bytaxpayers in the wake of the financial crisis but have sincereturned to profitability, poured billion of dollars into publiccoffers.

Fannie Mae, which said in May it would return $59 billion tothe Treasury in dividends, provided most of the funds."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-posts-117-billion-budget-180018328.html


No doubt the GOP will cry foul.. Obama is cooking the books again! Idiots.

[Kolesar]

26. Thanks, DCBob! eom

[adieu]

11. I think it was already shown

that austerity only dropped the overall budget by about 4%, but that 4% rested on the backs of the poor and the needy. So the austerity did not have a significant effect on the budget surplus, as opposed to greater revenue.

[RussBLib]

12. well, you know what THAT means...

...that means we will have to pass a tax CUT to give that surplus back to the people! After all, it's the people's money!

Do I have the GOP hogwash correct?

[Iliyah]

13. Here we go again

house gopers voted all many times on a jobs bill? Who wants the sequester? Who doesn't care about the 99%? What party want the 1% to pay their fair share of taxes alongwith the corporations? What party want overall health care and for those who ignore information, some of that surplus is because of Obamacare. What party want to save public education? Which party enjoys seeing government employees get laid off without unemployment insurance and what party enjoys seeing people furlough. Which party cares for 1% than feeding children. What party don't give a eff about students and college loans.

I'm tired of this crap. Guess you guys refer what happened in 2000 thereafter . . .500 -750 thousand people paid off each month. Civil liberties gone especially for women, workers, voters, and the poor - oops that may equal to at 75%.

The man have unprecedented obstruction every where he turns concerning the economy.

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. Who are they trying to fool? oh - just everyone . .

.
.
.

It's just accountants playing with numbers.

USA owns over 20% of the World debt, 11 trillion+

They can make a "budget" - and say "hey! - we came underneath it"

so can any state

"double speak" I think is the term

For the curious

check the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_debt

CC

[Garion_55]

15. and republicans everywhere cheered obama!!!

uh huh

[bushisanidiot]

20. Thanks, President Obama!

[Sunlei]

21. pay off on the loan principle. That's what Pres. O mentioned last year as use for surplus $

Saves us billions in future interest and rebalances the future budget towards the black.

[Wolf Frankula]

23. We Have a 117 Billion Surplus

Time for another tax cut for rich people. And we can now afford another war! Let's intervene in Syria.

Wolf

[DCBob]

25. The biggest benefit of this is that it takes the debt ceiling weapon away from the Republicans.

at least for awhile.

[Kingofalldems]

28. Obama is a communist

[demwing]

29. A communist, socialist, Kenyan

and an elitist, Marxist, Maoist, populist.

[Kingofalldems]

30. That surplus--part of his plan to destroy America.