Nbadan
10-08-2004, 03:49 PM
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - Even after a year of solid economic growth and booming corporate profits, federal income tax revenues were lower in the fiscal year that just ended than in the year before President Bush took office, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
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Based on the Treasury Department's tax receipts through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2004 fiscal year, the budget office estimated that the deficit hit a record of $415 billion. The deficit was slightly smaller than the most recent Congressional and administration forecasts, mainly because corporate tax revenues shot up by 43 percent as profits climbed at the fastest pace in decades. Personal tax revenues rose by 2 percent.
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But the four-year budget record is less comforting. Spending, particularly military spending, has climbed rapidly since Mr. Bush took office. Largely because of the war in Iraq, but also because of Pentagon modernization projects, military spending has climbed about 40 percent since 2000 to $437 billion. Military spending climbed 12.3 percent in 2004 alone, faster than Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs and about three times faster than other discretionary programs.
More striking is the decline in tax revenues since 2000. Tax revenues plunged when the stock market bubble collapsed in 2000 and continued to decline as a result of the recession in 2001 and the high unemployment that followed. But personal income and corporate profits have both recovered since the downturn and are once again at record highs.
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/08deficit.html?oref=login&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1097240872-p6X6g45yi5iXGLDDh/OPrg)
Oh, now I feel much more at ease about W's forth tax cut since he took office.
:rolleyes
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Based on the Treasury Department's tax receipts through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2004 fiscal year, the budget office estimated that the deficit hit a record of $415 billion. The deficit was slightly smaller than the most recent Congressional and administration forecasts, mainly because corporate tax revenues shot up by 43 percent as profits climbed at the fastest pace in decades. Personal tax revenues rose by 2 percent.
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But the four-year budget record is less comforting. Spending, particularly military spending, has climbed rapidly since Mr. Bush took office. Largely because of the war in Iraq, but also because of Pentagon modernization projects, military spending has climbed about 40 percent since 2000 to $437 billion. Military spending climbed 12.3 percent in 2004 alone, faster than Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs and about three times faster than other discretionary programs.
More striking is the decline in tax revenues since 2000. Tax revenues plunged when the stock market bubble collapsed in 2000 and continued to decline as a result of the recession in 2001 and the high unemployment that followed. But personal income and corporate profits have both recovered since the downturn and are once again at record highs.
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/08deficit.html?oref=login&adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1097240872-p6X6g45yi5iXGLDDh/OPrg)
Oh, now I feel much more at ease about W's forth tax cut since he took office.
:rolleyes