We're rich

By Mustang Bobby

The U.S. was rolling in dough in June.

The U.S. government posted an unexpectedly large budget surplus in June, a further sign of the rapid improvement in public finances that has taken the heat off Congress to find savings and raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

Rising tax revenue, public spending cuts and big payments to the Treasury from government-backed mortgage companies helped the government take in $117 billion more last month than it paid out, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a surplus of $39.5 billion.

June’s surplus was the largest on record for that month.

That doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods in terms of the deficit. The government brought in more money last month than it spent, but it still has big outstanding debts on the credit cards. In other words, it’s like your paycheck covered your monthly bills with a little left to spare, but you still need to pay down those big Visa or Mastercard bills.

But it does mean that the government isn’t facing a debt ceiling crisis immediately. And we can probably build another useless Marine facility in Afghanistan.

(Cross-posted at Mustang Bobby.)