Friday's report on the federal government's budget deficit through August told us that with one month remaining in the fiscal year, Uncle Sam will certainly "achieve" an all-time single-year record in tax collections accompanied by all-time record spending.
The Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger apparently didn't consider either item newsworthy. Instead, he decided that the real news is this year's projected deficit will be the lowest in the past years — even though that projected shortfall of $426 billion, though quite likely is by no means certain.
Here are key paragraphs from Crutsinger's Friday afternoon writeup:
US BUDGET DEFICIT DROPS TO $64.4 BILLION IN AUGUST
The federal government ran up a much smaller budget deficit in August than a year ago, remaining on track to record the smallest annual deficit in eight years.
The Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit in August totaled $64.4 billion, a drop of 50 percent from the same month a year ago.
Much of that improvement reflected quirks in timing related to the calendar. Some $42 billion in August benefit payments were made in July because Aug. 1 fell on a Saturday.
In other words, after taking that timing difference into account, the August 2015 monthly deficit would have been $106 billion, only about 17 percent below August 2014.
Continuing:
Through the first 11 months of this budget year ending Sept. 30, the deficit is running 10 percent below last year's level. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the deficit for the full year will drop to $426 billion, down 11.8 percent from the previous year as a stronger economy brings in more tax revenue.
... Through the first 11 months of this year, government revenues total $2.88 trillion, up 8 percent from the same period a year ago. Government spending over the past 11 months is up 4.8 percent to $3.41 trillion.
The CBO's forecast of a 2015 deficit of $426 billion would be the lowest imbalance since the deficit stood considerably lower at $160.7 billion in 2007.
(The reported deficit in fiscal 2007 was $161.5 billion, as of the end of fiscal 2008.)
Wow, we're so impressed. The 2015 will deficit will "only" be over 2-1/2 times the deficit seen eight years ago. Not coincidentally, that 2007 occurred during the last budget passed by a Republican Congress (during calendar 2006) and signed by a Republican president. Every fiscal year since Barack Obama entered the White House has seen higher deficits, most of them far higher.
If the deficit comes in just $30 billion higher, it will remain higher than the $455 billion shortfall seen in fiscal 2008. Given the volatility of spending and collections, a shortfall greater than that amount is a distinct possibility.
Meanwhile, record spending and a record tax intake by the "greedy hand" are both, barring high-level accounting gimmickery, virtual certainties.
The $2.88 trillion in collections only needs to increase by $137 billion in September to break the full-year record of $3.02 trillion set last year. Collection in Septmber 2014 were over $350 billion, so the previous record for tax intake will be smashed to bits.
The previous all-time fiscal year spending record is the $3.60 trillion seen in fiscal 2011. The government, which has been averaging over $300 billion per month in spending through this year's first 11 months, only needs to spend $190 billion to break that record.
But those things aren't news at that Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press. Only a marginally smaller deficit.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
