If you want to correct for the $185 billion collected by Social Security as surplus cash flow in 2006 — that is, the taxes came in today to pay for benefits promised in future years — then you have to look at the on-budget deficit, which Walker calls the “operating deficit.” The on-budget deficit came to $434 billion in 2006. The on-budget deficit shrank from 2005 to 2006, just as the unified budget deficit did, but the drop was much smaller: to $434 billion in fiscal 2006 from $494 in fiscal 2005.
Both of these still understate the size of the deficit. The Bush administration has been adamant about keeping certain costs out of the budget figures. Spending on the war in Iraq, for example, has been included not in budget resolutions but in special emergency spending bills. They are “off budget” in the language of Washington. That spending, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $360 billion overall and $95 billion in the fiscal year that ended in October 2006, aren’t in either of these two budget figures. And Iraq funding for fiscal 2007 won’t be included in the budget the president will introduce next month, either.
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[…] with. The reduction of easy money can have serious consequences to an economy especially one so based on spending beyond what it is producing. I’m still not sure what the overall impact will be but the risks certainly seem to be worth […]
Those in charge of spending the money in Washington like to use deceptive tactics to try and trick people that don’t know any better…
to manage your investments you need to understand the great risk of a rising debt load (whether it is you personally or a country)…
The federal debt is not officially calculated the way that other accounting is done. Future obligations are not included…