The politics of profligacy.(federal deficit reaches lowest point)

ITEM: An Associated Press article in USA Today, entitled "Federal Deficit Now Lowest in 4 Years," reported on October 11: "The federal deficit fell to a four-year low in the budget year that just ended, a result President Bush pointed to Wednesday in claiming Republicans are better stewards of the economy than are Democrats."

Earlier in the day the administration had released budget numbers showing that the deficit was $248 billion for the fiscal year ending September 30, which was well below the $423 billion deficit the administration had forecast in the budget it submitted to Congress in February.

CORRECTION: Neither Democrats nor Republicans have much to be proud of when it comes to proper stewardship of the taxpayers' money. While it is obviously better to have a somewhat smaller deficit than expected, the bar has been set mighty low to call this a brilliant success.

The deficit over the last year was not quite as large because spending rose 7 percent while tax revenues jumped 12 percent. It should not be a point of honor to have taken that much more from the taxpayers.

For the last fiscal year, the federal budget blew up to an astounding $2.7 trillion. This was, as pointed out in a Wall Street Journal editorial on October 6, "a 9% increase, or triple the inflation rate. Over the past six years, the federal budget has increased by 49.2%. The main cause of the deficit decline--90% of it, says White House budget director Rob Portman--is a tidal wave of tax revenue. Tax collections have increased by $521 billion in the last two fiscal years, the largest two-year revenue increase--even after adjusting for inflation--in American history."

Piling on all of these taxes is not about to make the economy healthy. Moreover, the price tags on the so-called entitlement programs are actually rising even faster than the government's capability to pay for them. In addition, when you have deficits you have debt payments, and that burden on the economy is skyrocketing--totaling $406 billion in fiscal 2006. The Wall Street Journal on October 12 quotes Brian Bethune, U.S. economist at the consulting firm Globe Insight, as follows: "Spending is rising faster than the growth rate of the economy."

For all the credit (or blame) often given to Republicans as champions of "business," the GOP-led Congress and White House have extracted a huge amount of tax blood via corporate income taxation. Tax collections from corporations jumped 27 percent last year (to $254 billion) and are up by more than 70 percent over a two-year period.