We Nearly Broke Even
August 12th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
August 12th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
The Washington Post reports (link down):
The Treasury Department reported on Friday that the government produced a deficit of $157.3 billion for the budget year that began last Oct. 1. That’s a substantial improvement from the red ink figure of $239.6 billion produced for the corresponding 10-month period last year.The lower year-to-date deficit was the result of a record of $2.12 trillion in revenues. Spending, however, was higher: $2.27 trillion, which also marked an all-time high.
Wow. The Democrats could have withheld spending by 6% and claimed to do something not done in the last decade of Republican rule. I suppose that would have given them less backing to tax according to their social goals, though.
I still think we’re on the wrong side of the Laffer Curve. Just think how much economic activity you could have generated with another 1 or 2% of your adjusted gross income. 
August 13th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
On the other hand, people are complaining that people aren’t saving enough and spending too much. Spending generates revenue which is in turn taxed, but saving doesn’t get taxed.
This is why income tax is such a bad deal. I takes money out of the economy which would otherwise be taxed at every transaction in which it was used and thereby generate more taxe revenue to the government coffers.
I am a proponent of the Fair Tax initative (see Fairtax.org).