THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS:

The federal budget-deficit picture turned brighter Monday as congressional scorekeepers released new estimates showing the level of red ink for the current fiscal year would drop to $331 billion.

The new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which does budget analysis for lawmakers in Washington, gave the latest proof that surging revenues and a steadily growing economy are combining to bring the deficit down from a record $412 billion posted last year. CBO predicts a $314 billion deficit for the budget year starting Oct. 1.

“Surging revenues and a steadily growing economy.” We’re not hearing much about those, in general. Nice to know that they’re there.

UPDATE: Reader Edward McNamara notes that the line about surging revenues and a steadily growing economy is now absent from the story, which was revised at 5:33 pm according to a new timestamp at the NYT. How irritating. This seems to be the earlier version, though it bears a later timestamp, from Business Week.