Can we be honest about the deficit? $375,000 per worker...

[techweenie]

We all know the numbers are fudged -- that a lot of debt is not calculated in the annual deficit numbers, and that economic expansion is routinely overstated to reduce deficit projections. But an underlying problem lies in the government's use of cash-based, rather than accrual-based accounting.

Here's the sobering truth:

The true 2005 deficit was $760 billion, not the $318.5 billion Bush reported
This is 6.2% of the GDP, not 2.6%
That's $156,000 for every citizen, or $375,000 for every working American
The true national debt is $49 trillion, not the $8.3 trillion Bush reported
This figure has more than doubled in the past five years
We paid $327 billion last year on interest alone
It's all getting worse

---------------------------------
The above figures appear in the official U.S. Financial Report, released by the Treasury Department.

http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/index.html

The whistleblower:
http://cooper.house.gov/newsroom/releases/july06/072006_budget.htm

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Becoming an illegal alien is lookin' better and better every day. That way I wouldn't have to contribute to paying down any of it. Let the sucker 'mericans do that.

[cmccuist]

I've always wondered how bad it has to get - how high the national debt has to get - before any politician/president starts to do something about it.

Doesn't there come a point when you have to start paying back the debt? Like when the huge glut of baby boomers starts hitting social security.

[john70t]

Just write "Haliburton" on the top line of your fed return.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by cmccuist
I've always wondered how bad it has to get - how high the national debt has to get - before any politician/president starts to do something about it.

Doesn't there come a point when you have to start paying back the debt? Like when the huge glut of baby boomers starts hitting social security.

I don't have the answer, but defining the question is a good start.

The social security system would have had a multi-trillion surplus by now if the politicians (both parties) hadn't started raiding the reserve back in the 70s.

[speeder]

(With apologies to G. Carlin):

"I've got an idea! Why don't we go BK, then just change our name to something like, 'The Together States of America'?

"When some other country comes looking for their money, we just say, 'Yeah, they owe us too! Let us know if you see the bastards!"

[Tervuren]

Originally posted by cmccuist
I've always wondered how bad it has to get - how high the national debt has to get - before any politician/president starts to do something about it.

Doesn't there come a point when you have to start paying back the debt? Like when the huge glut of baby boomers starts hitting social security.

Ah - but you assume it can be paid back - it can't. Every single dollar printed is "borrowed" - every dollar you have interest is owed on it. Its only payable with gold - and all that Gold suddenly just going to sit there would freak out the world market I think.

Its a silly system to start with - with all the nations currency being debt.

[HardDrive]

Note to self: Move to Australia before the cow pie hits the fan......

[techweenie]

Funny, I expected someone to try and explain why skyrocketing national debt is a good thing... where're the true believers when you need comic relief? Mul?

[kach22i]

This says it all, not a death tax, a birth tax.





The number is too high what ever it really is.

[legion]

Just couldn't stand letting this slip off the front page, could you?

BTW, I blame FDR, one of the worst presidents in American history, IMO. The bad precedents he set continue to screw up the country.

[Rodeo]

You got hit by the stealthy "rate this thread" elfs.

They can no longer bear to defend this admin with a straight face, so they give you one star and silently move on ... Let's see if I can bump you a bit

[Rodeo]

Ahhhh, I see legion showed up to blame a guy that's been dead for half a century.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by Rodeo
Ahhhh, I see legion showed up to blame a guy that's been dead for half a century.

...and who financed a world war on two fronts...

[Rodeo]

Ok, you're up to 3 stars now tech ... you owe me dude! Pay my portion of the Iraq war for me, will ya?

On a more serious note, the dems have never been good at slogans ... I think "birth tax" is good!

[kach22i]

Carter did well on something?

Back to nailing that drunken sailor Congress and the dry drunk commander and chief.
.

[legion]

So what you're saying Tech, is that we still haven't reached FDR's tax and spend levels? Looks like your camp has some work to do.

BTW, FDR let the floodgates open on spending long before WWII...

[Rodeo]

Originally posted by legion
So what you're saying Tech, is that we still haven't reached FDR's tax and spend levels? Looks like your camp has some work to do.

BTW, FDR let the floodgates open on spending long before WWII...

Wow. You don't see rationalizations like that very often.

You are one hard-core George W. Bush lover.

Werd.

[Moneyguy1]

legion:

Go back and study the history and times of what FDR inherited and come back with a COGENT argument about the decision to create jobs by the feds for public projects was a bad one. Start with "The Grapes of Wrath" and move on from there. It is far too easy to look back and criticize than it is to actually have been there and wonder if your decisions are really going to be the right ones.

The logic that FDR spent without reason is similar to the denial that the holocost was a real event.

[techweenie]

Originally posted by legion
So what you're saying Tech, is that we still haven't reached FDR's tax and spend levels? Looks like your camp has some work to do.

BTW, FDR let the floodgates open on spending long before WWII...

Wow. Slept through American history, did we? The country started to borrow and spent it's way out of a worldwide depression before WWII started. I doubt FDR had much of a choice in the matter, either way.