“The latest very good data on the federal budget last week didn’t get any attention from most of the media budget reporters, for whom good news is no news. Federal revenues are growing at a brisk pace, up 9% so far in the first two months of fiscal year 2007. That follows 11% growth in 2006 and 12% in 2005. Over the past 26 months, federal tax collections have grown faster than in any 26-month period in American history. The fastest growth has been in corporate and personal income taxes, with the richest 1% of Americans now paying 34% of all federal taxes, an all-time high. Even better, federal spending is finally beginning to slow down. Expenditures are up 5% this fiscal year — still twice the inflation rate, but half the 10% growth we’ve seen since 2004. And the budget Congress approved last week slows spending growth to about 3% or 4% at least through February of 2007. Plus, no earmarks were included in that bill. Hooray”.–Stephen Moore, writing in the WSJ political diary