The deficit drops by a third for the first 3 months of this budget:

WASHINGTON (AP)—The federal deficit has improved significantly in the first three months of the new budget year, helped by a continued surge in tax revenues.

In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit from October through December totaled $80.4 billion.

Tax collections are running 8.2 percent higher than a year ago while government spending is up by just 0.7 percent from a year ago. Last year’s spending totals were boosted by significant payments to help the victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes.

The Treasury said for December, the government actually ran a surplus of $44.5 billion, the largest surplus ever recorded in December and a gain that reflected a big jump in quarterly corporate tax payments.

The $80.4 billion deficit for the first three months of the current budget year was down 32.6 percent from the imbalance for the same period a year ago of $119.4 billion.

So here we were well into this quarter when the Republicans lost the election where the deficit was a major issue. 

A couple interesting points.  Last year we had an extraordinary expense in the Katrina aftermath.  Our deficit last year (ending Sept 30th) was pretty good and it would have been that much better without the Hurricanes. 

The other thing is that tax revenues are up again.  We the taxpayers are doing our part.  It’s time the spending monsters reign in their habit.