How to Make the Deficit Look Smaller Than It Is

[SOS]

Say goodbye to your retirement. Bush spent it.

How to Make the Deficit Look Smaller Than It Is
By DANIEL GROSS

New York Times/Business: November 23, 2003

The news on the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2003 was encouraging, wasn't it? In July 2003, the Office of Management and Budget projected a record deficit of $455 billion. But when the fiscal year ended in October, the shortfall was only $374 billion, equivalent to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product.
...
If we factor out the so-called Social Security surplus - payroll taxes collected by the government but not paid out in benefits - the deficit in fiscal 2003 was actually far larger: $531 billion, or 4.9 percent of gross domestic product. For the current fiscal year, the administration expects that this figure, also called the on-budget deficit, will be even higher: $639 billion, or a whopping 5.4 percent of gross domestic product.
...
To ensure the proper use of the Social Security surplus, Vice President Al Gore in 2000 proposed segregating the funds into a sort of lockbox. George W. Bush also supported this concept, although his understanding of Social Security was revealed to be something less than complete. (In November 2000, during a campaign speech, he famously accused opponents of wanting "the federal government controlling the Social Security like it's some kind of federal program.")

In the past three years, President Bush and Congress have viewed the Social Security surplus more as a cookie jar than a lockbox.
...
The reality will likely be far worse... next year's on-budget deficit will be $687 billion - not $639 billion, as the administration suggests. In 2008, the groups say, the on-budget deficit will be $692 billion...or twice the Bush administration's projection."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/business/yourmoney/23view.html

[Fixated]

1. .....

The Economist has a chart for this:

""

[Don_G]

2. I Think It's Even Worse

Foreign countries aren't buying the debt of the US like they used to, Greenspan is articifically propping up the economy until the selection, Snow and Elaine Chao (Senate Majority's #2's wife) are fudging the figures left and right plus the GOP controlled media is under-reporting everything.

I suspect that, if anything happens, the s**t will hit the fan and it ain't gonna be pretty.