That turned a $49 billion surplus in the same month a year ago into a surplus this time of $8.7 billion.
The drop in revenues, caused in part by the GOP tax cut which went into law at the end of 2017, continued to add to the deficit problems, and again undercut the arguments of Republicans and top White House officials, who repeatedly said the tax cuts would pay for themselves by bringing in more revenues to the federal treasury.
Federal revenues are down 1.5% over the last 12 months versus the year-earlier period, the largest such drop since July 2010 (when the unemployment rate was 9.4%) https://t.co/V9SVGKCNln pic.twitter.com/gOtA2dw7bw
— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) March 5, 2019
Revenues have dropped in three of the first four months of the fiscal year; spending has been up in three months as well.
While no budget expert would expect the deficit to continue on a pace where it is 77 percent higher than a year ago for the entire fiscal year, outside budget groups and the White House agree that it will likely end up higher than the $779 billion for 2018.
In figures released by the Treasury Department, individual income taxes fell again in January, totaling $197.1 billion, compared to $211.9 billion in January of 2018.
Today the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2017 tax law will add $1.455 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 6, 2019
In the first four months of the fiscal year, individual income taxes are down by $33 billion.
Corporate income tax collections dropped by nearly half, going from $13.5 billion in January of last year to $6.8 billion in January of 2019.
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