Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Budget Deficit Fudge
The WSJ editors predictably rejoice in today's paper over the decline of the federal deficit.
The change? Down from $596 Billion two years ago, to $574 Billion this year. Woo Hoo!
But things aren't quite as rosy as they seem. It appears the Feds have run up $39 Billion more debt in the first 10 days of the new fiscal year. Quite a feat, at this rate, next fiscal year's deficit would reach 1.4 Trillion. It appears at least 32 Billion of the stated deficit was a result of end of year shell games.
The WSJ quotes the deficit at only $248 Billion, but doing so writes off the Social Security trust funds as worthless IOUs. Of course, the WSJ editors really would prefer that the excess taxes collected from workers for the past 25 and the next 13 or so years never would be repaid, and thus they cheer the net change of $557 Billion a year on the balance sheet since the fiscal year ended 9/2000.
Half a trillion bucks a year - that is how much the Bush administration is stealing from future taxpayers, compared with the balanced budget left by the Clinton administration.
The change? Down from $596 Billion two years ago, to $574 Billion this year. Woo Hoo!
But things aren't quite as rosy as they seem. It appears the Feds have run up $39 Billion more debt in the first 10 days of the new fiscal year. Quite a feat, at this rate, next fiscal year's deficit would reach 1.4 Trillion. It appears at least 32 Billion of the stated deficit was a result of end of year shell games.
The WSJ quotes the deficit at only $248 Billion, but doing so writes off the Social Security trust funds as worthless IOUs. Of course, the WSJ editors really would prefer that the excess taxes collected from workers for the past 25 and the next 13 or so years never would be repaid, and thus they cheer the net change of $557 Billion a year on the balance sheet since the fiscal year ended 9/2000.
Half a trillion bucks a year - that is how much the Bush administration is stealing from future taxpayers, compared with the balanced budget left by the Clinton administration.
