by Calculated Risk on 7/13/2006 03:01:00 PM

The Treasury Department released the Monthly Treasury Statement for June today. See Table 2: On Budget Surplus / Deficit

For fiscal year-to-date, the budget deficit is $374.3 Billion compared to $410.1 Billion for fiscal 2005. That is the "extraordinary" improvement announced by the White House.

Meanwhile the YTD annual increase in the National Debt is larger in fiscal 2006 than 2005 - so even the small improvement in the budget deficit is possibly an accounting illusion.

Bottom line: There has been little or no improvement in the budget deficit.

UPDATE: pgl reminds me: Repatriation Relief and that “Surge” in Tax Revenues

So as the Bush Administration crows about the “surge” in taxes, let’s just remember that this is yet another example of Enron accounting where in reality the government gave away $50 billion on net.

I suspect even the minor improvment will be transitory. Not only is the repatriation give away over, but "not withheld" taxes will be negatively impacted next year by the housing and stock market performance in 2006.