Wednesday, May 10, 2017

So keep the debt ceiling

US Treasury Collects A Record $1.929 Trillion In Taxes In Fiscal 2017 YTD

According to the just released Monthly Treasury Statement, in April the US Treasury collected $456 billion and spent $273 billion, resulting in a budget surplus of $182 billion, higher than the $179 billion expected, and well above last year's $106.5 billion surplus. In a surprising jump in government revenues, receipts rose 3.9% y/y to $455.6b in April while outlays fell 17.7% y/y to $273.2b in April, likiely the result of debt ceiling considerations.

It is tax season and we should be running surpluses.  If our normal surplus comes with a  debt ceiling, then keep the  ceiling. Instead we are going to break the debt ceiling in an effort to avoid defaults, thus causing a recession..

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