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**Written by Doug Powers

In spite of what they say on an almost daily basis, the federal government has a catastrophic spending addiction, not a revenue problem:

Federal revenue will return to its pre-recession levels in 2013, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), setting a record for the most money the government has ever taken in.

In its latest Budget and Economic Update, the CBO forecasts that federal revenue will top $2.7 trillion in 2013, slightly higher than the $2.6 trillion the government collected in 2007, when the last recession officially began.

Government revenues had fallen by nearly $500 billion during the recession to $2.1 trillion in 2009, contributing to the $1.5 trillion deficit that year. However, federal revenues have been recovering since the recession ended in June 2009, and the CBO now projects that they will slightly eclipse their pre-recession peak.

In fact, the $2.7 trillion in revenue will be the most money the federal government has collected in history.

But it’ll never be enough:

President Barack Obama said on Sunday more tax revenue would be needed to reduce the U.S. deficit and signaled he would push hard to get rid of loopholes such as the “carried interest” tax break enjoyed by private equity and hedge fund managers.
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“There is no doubt we need additional revenue, coupled with smart spending reductions in order to bring down our deficit. And we can do it in a gradual way so that it doesn’t have a huge impact,” he said.

There will certainly never be enough revenue to satisfy Harry Reid:

Asserting that “the American people” are on his side, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told me during an exclusive interview for “This Week” that any that deal reached between Republicans and Democrats to avoid the looming sequester must — “without any question” – include revenue.

“The American people are on our side. The American people don’t believe in these austere things. We believe that the rich should contribute.”

Naturally, record revenue is an inadequate amount for Nancy Pelosi:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that Democrats will push for more revenue in the fight over raising the debt ceiling – an issue Republicans say was already settled in the just-completed fiscal cliff deal.

President Barack Obama had wanted $1.6 trillion in new revenue, but settled for $620 billion raised from higher income tax rates for the wealthy.

“That is not enough on the revenue side,” the Democratic congresswoman from California said during on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

**Written by Doug Powers

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