According to new figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department today, the federal deficit has decreased by another $207 billion and the federal government ran a surplus of $75 billion during the month of September.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. government ran a budget surplus of $75 billion in September, the Treasury Department reported Friday, but posted a deficit of $1.089 trillion for all of fiscal 2012, the fourth year in a row with a deficit of more than $1 trillion. Compared to a year ago, the deficit is about 16% less, due to both higher revenues and reduced spending.
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The deficit totaled $1.1 trillion for 2012. The government's revenue was boosted by a modest improvement in economic growth. Tax revenue rose 6.4 percent to more than $2.4 trillion. [...]
Government spending fell 1.7 percent to $3.5 trillion. The decline reflected in part a drop in defense spending as U.S. military involvement in Iraq was winding down.
This marks the third year in a row that the Obama administration has cut the deficit. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office projects that the deficit will fall below $1 trillion to $901 billion in 2013.
Because Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan allege that we're moving in the wrong direction, does this mean they believe we should run higher deficits and employ less people? On substance, their proposed policies, and the policies Paul Ryan has voted for in congress, suggest as much.