Just The Facts
Fallenmonk provides the facts from a Fortune magazine article:
The Hedgemony is going to report a deficit of $ 158 billion, but that doesn’t include the $ 78 billion Social Security surplus, or the $ 108 billion in interest owed to the Social Security trust fund, or the $ 97 billion in IOUs for principle and interest on Federal pensions.
The real deficit is $ 441 billion, and all of their other stated deficits were off by a similar amount, around $ 280 billion, in unreported deficit every year.
BTW, I complained when Clinton reported a surplus, noting that it was really just the build-up of the Social Security trust fund, and not a surplus in tax revenue. I wanted the Social Security monies separated from the other Federal monies, so that there was no confusion, but the Repubs were planning on looting the treasury by claiming that too much tax was being withheld.
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“I wanted the Social Security monies separated from the other Federal monies, so that there was no confusion, but the Repubs were planning on looting the treasury by claiming that too much tax was being withheld.” – Bryan
No kidding, on both points.
The real debt by the end of Bush’s term is probably greater than any of us can imagine at this point. It seems my decision not to have children was right: I wouldn’t want to see them laboring at slave wages to pay off Dubya’s contribution to the debt.
Have you read Gore’s The Assault of Reason yet? He discusses at considerable length the way in which BushCo™ has managed to force the raiding of the treasury into the distant future, using a combination of fear, “faith” and misdirection. I’m about halfway through, right about at the point at which I lament aloud that President Gore never assumed the office he legitimately won.
The interest in the national debt is well on its way to being the biggest item in the budget, after we had a start on paying off some of our bills.
I’m sick of hearing the GOP and fiscal responsibility in the same sentence. Borrow and spend is all they have ever done.