« on: April 14, 2015, 05:06:44 PM »
To owebuma and the owebumeconomy...
Late Monday afternoon, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger produced a typically dodgy dispatch on the government's Monthly Treasury Statement. The Treasury Department released the March version of that report covering the first six months of the current fiscal year early Monday afternoon.
The odd thing is, while it has been published elsewhere at the web sites of certain of its subscribers, a search on "budget deficit" (not in quotes) at the wire service's national site indicates that it's not present there at all.
The national site's only mention of March's deficit is in the sixth of 13 listings at a "Business Highlights" summary.
It reads as follows (bolds are mine throughout this post):
US budget deficit expanded slightly in fiscal first half
WASHINGTON (AP) - The deficit through the first half of the budget year ran slightly above last year's pace, with the March imbalance up $16 billion over a year ago.
The Treasury Department said Monday that the March deficit came to $52.9 billion compared to a deficit of $36.9 billion in March 2014.
Through the first six months of the budget year, the deficit totaled $439.5 billion, 6.3 percent higher than last year's six-month deficit of $413.3 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a full-year deficit of $486 billion, roughly on par with 2014's deficit of $483.4 billion.
Items appearing earlier in the AP "Business Highlights," and thus seemingly more important, include...
"What's in a hotel name?";
"Veggies take center plate as healthy fast food chains expand"; and
"Airline passengers have more to complain about, report finds."
"Slightly" is an interesting term for a 6.3 percent increase in the deficit, especially since Crutsinger and others at the AP often describe economic growth of 3 percent as "healthy," and even occasionally as "robust."
More to the point, the numbers disclosed above show how difficult it will be for the government to meet or beat the CBO's deficit forecast.
The defcit for this year's final six months will have to be $46.5 billion or less ($486 billion minus $439.5 billion) for that to happen.
That's significantly less than last year's final six-month deficit of $70.1 billion ($483.4 billion minus $413.3 billion).
It would seem to be about even money at this point that the fiscal 2015 deficit will top $500 billion, especially with, as will be seen shortly, spending rolling along at an average rate of $310 billion per month.
If that level of spending continues, Uncle Sam will have to sustain a 7 percent increase in collections for the rest of the year — even though, as an AP reporter wrote earlier this month, "the economy has been flagging for months."
full article...
- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2015/04/14/low-visibility-report-aps-crutsinger-masks-spike-govt-spending#sthash.1aLo4gFc.dpuf
Logged
There were only two options for gender. At last count there are at least 12, according to libs. By that standard, I'm a male lesbian.
