March US Treasury Report: Receipts Barely Up, Spending Way Up
So altogether, not a good month.
Here are the numbers:
The amount spent by Uncle Sam in March is probably the highest in any month in history, and moved what had looked like a surprising bit of spending control into the land of mediocrity.
The differential between the increases in receipts and spending needs to stay at about 5% for the possibility of a balanced budget by sometime in 2008 to remain.
It’s odd that there are no comments as this is the most devastating of economic news.
Comment by Michael Q — April 12, 2007 @ 11:21 am
#1, I wouldn’t go that far — yet. April is one of the biggest months for receipts, so an 8%-10% pickup there would show that supply-side is still working. On the spending side, there is reason to worry that it’s going to bust open.
April’s not the be-all end-all, but it will be a pretty important indicator.
Comment by TBlumer — April 12, 2007 @ 9:56 pm
#1, June and September are the other two big months between now and the end of the current fiscal year.
Comment by Tom Blumer — April 12, 2007 @ 10:54 pm