Tax Revenue Below 2000's Despite Growth in Profits

[bemildred]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - Even after a year of solid economic growth and booming corporate profits, federal income tax revenues were lower in the fiscal year that just ended than in the year before President Bush took office, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

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Based on the Treasury Department's tax receipts through Sept. 30, the last day of the 2004 fiscal year, the budget office estimated that the deficit hit a record of $415 billion. The deficit was slightly smaller than the most recent Congressional and administration forecasts, mainly because corporate tax revenues shot up by 43 percent as profits climbed at the fastest pace in decades. Personal tax revenues rose by 2 percent.

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But the four-year budget record is less comforting. Spending, particularly military spending, has climbed rapidly since Mr. Bush took office. Largely because of the war in Iraq, but also because of Pentagon modernization projects, military spending has climbed about 40 percent since 2000 to $437 billion. Military spending climbed 12.3 percent in 2004 alone, faster than Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs and about three times faster than other discretionary programs.

More striking is the decline in tax revenues since 2000. Tax revenues plunged when the stock market bubble collapsed in 2000 and continued to decline as a result of the recession in 2001 and the high unemployment that followed. But personal income and corporate profits have both recovered since the downturn and are once again at record highs.

NY Times

[tom_paine]

1. In other news: Sun Rose this morning

Jeezus, morans! Like, point out some more obivous stuff!

[SoCalDem]

3. Yessiree..

Cut taxes for the ones who HAVE money, and squeeze tax money from people who are barely making it.. Give what you get to your pals in the military business..

Sounds like a stellar economic plan to me:eyes:

[Carla in Ca]

8. Oh, and don't forget to get as many people

into poverty we can so there is more for us!

Anybody else see Bill Clinton as Attonney General? HUD? Ambassador to the UN? Think of the possibilities.

[expatriot]

2. Just another day in Bush's unending war against the public sector. <nt>

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. No duh. The corporate tax cuts lowered their contribution considerably...

...meanwhile, the middle class is shouldering an ever-growing load.

[Peter1x9]

5. You can't forget the effects of outsourcing too

Regardless of the number, every single job sent overseas has an impact on federal tax revenues. And many of the people that are laid off end up taking lower paying jobs.
Nobody knows the exact numbers of jobs sent overseas, but even a few hundred thousand lost jobs will make a dent in the tax revenues.

[AP]

6. Lots of the profit is coming from not paying taxes.

People don't have to work harder to make money. They just have to have a friend in the government willing to shift the tax burden down to the middle and working class, and off employers and on to employees.

[nolabels]

7. We are growing our way out of this recession

(CBS/AP) Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., seized new predictions of a record federal budget deficit Tuesday to hammer Mr. Bush's economic agenda, accusing the president of taking the country in the wrong direction.

"Only George W. Bush could celebrate over a record budget deficit of $422 billion, a loss of 1.6 million jobs and Medicare premiums that are up by a record 17 percent," the Democratic presidential candidate said during a stop in Greensboro, N.C.

"W stands for wrong — the wrong direction for America."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is predicting that this year's federal deficit will be reach $422 billion, the highest ever but less than the amount analysts predicted earlier this year.
(snip)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/03/politics/main640938.shtml

This bushco mis-adminstraton figure has been raised since Kerry made the speach to $477,000,000,000.oo but what is fifty-five billion when you are doing fuzzy math anyway :crazy:

[jwirr]

9. According to "Perfectly Legal"

this should come as no surprise. It is the Corporations and wealthy who are making the profits and they have their loopholes. Revenue from taxes comes from the middle class and working poor and their wages have stayed flat.