August 25, 2003
Don't worry about getting your kids
a gift this Christmas.
With the Feds help, they will receive a gift
that just keeps on giving.
DEBT!!!!!!!!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF DEBT!!!!
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
$$$ The Outstanding Public Debt as of 26
Aug 2003 is $6,793,445,096,289.
$$$ The estimated population of the
United States is 291,842,600.
$$$ Each citizen's share of this debt is
$23,277.77.
$$$ The National Debt has continued to
increase an average of $1.72 billion per day since September 30, 2002!
IN ADDITION, Next Year
The Federal Deficit Is Expected to Approach
$500 BILLION!!!
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal deficit, already at
record levels this year, will almost certainly get worse next year, congressional
budget analysts are expected to say in a report Tuesday.
But House Democrats said Monday that the Congressional Budget Office analysis
would understate the gravity of the fiscal crisis.
The nonpartisan CBO, which has estimated the federal deficit at $401 billion
for the fiscal year ending September 30, is likely to project red ink
approaching or even surpassing $500 billion next year, said Rep. John Spratt,
D-South Carolina, top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
But Spratt said the actual deficits next year and in the subsequent years could
be substantially higher because the CBO generally does not take into account
future policy changes such as increased defense costs or new tax cuts.
The CBO is expected to lay out various scenarios, including the added budgetary
burden if the cost of the war in Iraq and the rebuilding of that country
becomes a permanent fixture. The rebuilding of Iraq is not part of current
budgetary projections.
The CBO in March, in its last long-range projection, predicted a 2003 deficit
of $246 billion and an accumulated $891 billion surplus through 2013. The
numbers this time are sure to be more pessimistic.
The Budget Committee Democrats said their analysis shows that the deficit will
hit $495 billion in 2004, and will never go below $300 billion in the 2004-2013
period, reaching a total over the decade of $3.7 trillion.
If money from the Social Security surpluses now being used to pay for other
federal programs is not factored in, the decade-long deficit will be $6.3
trillion, they said.
GOP blueprint
Sean Spicer, spokesman for House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa,
disputed the Democratic conclusions, saying Republicans do have a blueprint for
getting the budget back in balance. He said the keys were promoting a strong
economic recovery and controlling federal spending and "we're trying to do
both."
The Bush administration blamed the swift reversal from budget surpluses to
perennial deficits to the faltering economy, the Sept. 11 attacks and the sharp
rise in defense and homeland security costs. The White House says the fiscal
situation will improve as the economy, bolstered by the Bush tax cuts, becomes
more robust.
But Spratt contended that budget projections already assume strong growth of
more than 3 percent a year over the next few years. "Even with growth we
still have deep deficits getting even deeper," he said.
The CBO numbers, he said, do not take into account the $1.2 trillion that will
be lost if tax cuts scheduled to expire over the next decade are made
permanent, and another $878 billion in new tax cuts over the decade being
sought by the White House.
Also not included is a $400 billion Medicare prescription drug benefit Congress
is trying to pass this year, increased defense and anti-terrorism spending and
addressing natural disasters.
This fiscal year's deficit has already exceeded the old record of $290.4
billion set in 1992 when President Bush's father was president. Republicans
argue that the economy is much larger today than it was then, so the budget
shortfall has less of an impact.