Politics and Policy It seems the news isn’t being very good the President right now. Check out the article U.S. Economic History By the time Reagan left office, 200 billion dollar deficits were considered to be so ingrained in the budget that it was untouchable. G.H.W. Bush didn’t help matters when he said “Read My Lips: No New Taxes”. But G.H.W. Bush had to compromise and made a slight tax increase, and then Clinton also had to increase taxes, incurring the everlasting wrath of many neo-conservatives. But the budget moved toward being balanced, in large part because of a very healthy economy during the second term of the Clinton administration. By the time of the year 2000 election, the biggest argument seemed to be how to best use the budget surplus projected for the following year! My, that now seems so long ago. The official number being used by the White House is that the current deficit is 319 billion dollars for 2005. That’s not the total debt, that’s how much is being ADDED to the total debt for last year’s expenditures. This will probably increase in the next three years, but for argument’s sake let’s say it continues at the current rate. This means that by the time Bush retires from office in January 2009, the federal debt would have INCREASED BY A TRILLION DOLLARS – not since he was elected, but since he was RE-ELECTED. This is an amount roughly equal to one-half of the entire federal budget for 2005. But that’s not the whole story. The official figures are based on a “cash-basis” accounting system. But since 1997 the government has had a dual accounting system, for informational purposes, which uses an “accrual basis” accounting. In short, it is designed to count a liability when it is incurred, regardless of when in the future it has to be paid. Using the accrual system, our deficit for 2005 is actually 760 BILLION – over twice the official deficit numbers. The reason for the difference is that Republicans are incurring obligations which they don’t expect to be paid until the future – preferably during a Democratic administration. To quote Kevin G. Hall in a special to the Knight-Rider newspapers: "’Director Portman will be inheriting the most dire long-term fiscal outlook we've ever had,’ said Brian Riedl, chief budget analyst for The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. ‘The first baby boomers retire in 18 months, and the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid costs are set to explode. On top of that, he'll be dealing with a Congress that's absolutely addicted to runaway spending and pork.’ Conservatives such as Riedl complain that federal spending has grown 45 percent since 2001 and that the budget deficit for fiscal 2005 was a whopping $319 billion.” So even The Heritage Foundation believes that the wheels are coming off this cart. (Posted by RHP6033)        Copyright 2006-2007 - Brookridge Associates Inc. All rights reserved.