U.S. to run first surplus since 2008

WTF--The socialist, communist Obama is a fiscal budgetary surplus president? WTF? I thought we have been hearing from the Grotesquely Oligarchy Psychopathic Party that this Obama guy was supposed to be running the country into the hands of Karl Marx and Stalin? Something is not right here. I thought Romney said that only HE could manage the economy like it was supposed to be managed--like he did it at Bain, or is it Bane Capital. 

CBO: Surplus is first of Obama’s presidency
5-7-12 By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. government recorded a budget surplus of $58 billion in April, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday, breaking a streak of deficits that began in 2008.

The surplus — the first of Barack Obama’s presidency — was the result of both increased tax collection and lower government spending. Before April, the government had not run a surplus since September 2008, the month that the financial crisis struck the U.S. economy.Read CBO report.

The CBO’s estimate is released before the Treasury Department’s monthly budget report. That report is scheduled for later this week.

CBO estimated that receipts were $30 billion higher in April than the same month a year ago, due to declining refunds that month and higher corporate income tax receipts. Spending fell by $69 billion compared to April 2011, marked by lower outlays on defense, Medicaid and the Postal Service.

Government spending and deficits are shaping up to be a main issue in the presidential campaign, and the monthly surplus is a piece of good news for Obama. Read more about Election 2012.

For the first seven months of the fiscal year, the CBO estimates that the Treasury will notch a deficit of $721 billion. That’s $149 billion less than the red ink reported for the same period in fiscal 2011.

The improved budget picture will not put an end to election-year sparring about the deficit, however. The U.S. is running a debt of $15.7 trillion, a number often pointed out by Obama’s Republican critics, including White House hopeful Mitt Romney. Read more about U.S. national debt. 

Robert Schroeder is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.(http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com)