2008 Budget: Facts & Myths

Democrats and Republicans are spinning their heads off the 2008 Budget proposal. The numbers in the budget proposals are the numbers regardless of how they are spun, and therefore, the budget numbers are fact based, regardless of the spin. Here is a look at context, facts, and lies of the 2008 budget, sparked by an article by FactCheck.org.

Defense Spending: Mirror, mirror on the wall...

We were told the 2006 Defense spending part of the budget would be $453 billion, advertised in the bill, H.R. 2863. What did our President and Congress actually spend? Try 200 billion more than the figure above. How about the upcoming Defense appropriations bill for 2007 (beginning July 2007 fiscal year)? Adding the reported numbers up, it comes to between 566.9 and 586.9 billion. This doesn't include unanticipated emergency supplementals.

Are we engaged in a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy here? Is it possible, that the more we spend in preparation to engage the rest of the world militarily, the more conflicts we must engage in, and the more we must increase our military spending to do so, ad infinitum?

America's Fate: the Titanic's.

David Walker, U.S. Comptroller, gave a speech recently which was re-aired on C-Span this evening. It was the most important speech made in the last 5 years and will remain the most important speech for America's future for decades. America is on a path to depression and bankruptcy, and the politicians to date, refuse to act to prevent it. The essence of his message was simple. America must make radical changes today to its future financial situation if it is to have an economic future with quality and dignity for its citizens.

What is a Billion?

Republicans who have increased our national debt with their deficit spending by 50% to date, are going to vote to raise the debt limit ceiling another $781 Billion Dollars. Some, if not many, Democrats are going to vote right along with them. 781 Billion dollars. Big number: but, most folks don't appreciate how big.

So how big is one billion? Well, 1 Billion seconds ago, the War in Viet Nam was ending in 1975.

781 billion seconds ago would put us back to 6,585 B.C., pretty much the dawn of civilization.

The Big Spender Named Bush

"Federal spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Clinton," notes Brian Riedl, an economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative advocacy group in Washington, notes The Christian Science Monitor. And the President's 2007 deficit appears on track to be a new record setter after all the emergency supplementals and off budget items are added on to the national debt.

In Debt To Your Eyeballs

October 1st marked the beginning of a new fiscal year for the federal government. The fiscal year is the 12 month period in which the bookkeepers for government track revenues and spending against a budget proposed by the President and adjusted and approved by Congress for this one year period. The deficit of the last year as of The Treasury Dept's. 3rd quarter reporting figures was 249 Billion 800 million or a 1/4 trillion dollars. The amount for the end of the last fiscal year is estimated to be 330 Billion dollars. But it is not domestic spending increases that caused this deficit. According to the Congressional Budget Office as reported by the CBBP (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities):

A Snapshot of the Future

I follow the markets, since I manage my wife's 401K. I just took a look at the stock market indexes around the world and saw a picture of the future.

All European stocks down save Norway. All Asian Pacific stocks up, handsomely. Canadian stocks up. S. American stocks mixed. US stocks not moving.

On Fear and Flip-Flops

Fear -- While many Americans are fearful of another terrorist attack, there may be a much larger bogeyman casting its shadow over Americans cloaked in new data from the Treasury Department. And while Pres. Bush focuses on reelection calling his rival a flip-flopper, it would appear he does not notice how like a fish out of water he is acting as a result of his speech writing ventriloquists.

Mind Boggling National Debt

Here is some mind boggling but PERTINENT political information. Our interest accrued on our national debt for the month of December was over $82 Billion Dollars. Below is an interest chart with historical context.

The national debt as of two days ago (gets higher every day) stands at $7,010,088,657,339.47. That is over 7 Trillion Dollars. Following the interest chart below is another table of our national debt. All figures are courtesy of the U.S. Treasury.

Try taking the following numbers on a calculator and dividing by our population of 290 million, you will be shocked. Then consider what a 10 to 12 Trillion Dollar national debt will do to us. That is what is now projected by the Congressional Budget Office as our debt by 2010 if Bush programs and tax cuts remain intact and the current economic conditions continue. Voting for more of the same just does not appear to be a viable option to this voter.

Americans Owe Some Frightening Debt

The US Government as of this date has a national debt owed to those who invest in this country 6 trillion, 687 billion, 265 million dollars. The American in a family of four who brings home the bacon owes those investors, 91 thousand 849 dollars. In addition to this, that same breadwinner owes those same investors an additional $2,565.75 in interest for this year on that debt.