The latest Treasury data paints a rather interesting picture. Results from the month of October—the first month of the new fiscal 2007 year—show revenues are soaring. They are up an impressive 12 percent.
Smoothed out on a 12-month basis—there’s a roughly $260 billion increase in revenues, while spending grew at 8 percent.
A back-of-the-envelope analysis shows that if Congress had held outlays in the last three or four years to 6 percent—which is still twice the rate of inflation—we would have had a balanced budget by now.
Message to the lame-duck GOP Congress: Get a spending pay-go limitation with balanced budget targets passed.
