According to the Treasury website the Nationla Debt went up each fiscal year from 1998-2001 it didnt go down any as indicated in the graph during the Clinton years.
Precisely. The surplus is a myth, and apparently one that won't die.
How they managed to approach a balanced budget during the NASDAQ bubble years was to do what they've been doing for decades: by borrowing money from the Social Security "Trust Fund" and counting it as revenue, then immediately spent bribing voters with "free" stuff.
It's akin to a CEO taking his employees' 401k money and counting it as revenue. He'd be cooling his heels in the gray bar motel for perpetrating a fraud, which is what Uncle Sam is doing, but on a much grander scale.
Of course, this little accounting gimmick doesn't work any more, since Al Gore's lock box is empty and SS is now running chronic deficits. Short of massive tax increases, benefit cuts, or a combination, the demographics and a looming depression will guarantee massive shortfalls for a very long time. Rock, meet hard place.
They did not count money borrowed from the trust as revenue. It's treated as debt. Intragovernmental Holdings include the money borrowed from Social Security and other govt trusts.
09/29/2000 Debt Held by the Public 3,405,303,490,221.20 Intragovernmental Holdings 2,268,874,719,665.66 Total Public Debt Outstanding 5,674,178,209,886.86
Social Security is not running "chronic deficits." The Federal govt borrowed 27 billion from the Social Security Trust this past year.
Exactly. The rumblings from Repubs in Congress are no more than theatre.
ReplyDeleteBased on your question I expected to see a picture of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and a football.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Treasury website the Nationla Debt went up each fiscal year from 1998-2001 it didnt go down any as indicated in the graph during the Clinton years.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd.htm
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
09/30/1999 5,656,270,901,615.43
09/30/1998 5,526,193,008,897.62
Precisely. The surplus is a myth, and apparently one that won't die.
DeleteHow they managed to approach a balanced budget during the NASDAQ bubble years was to do what they've been doing for decades: by borrowing money from the Social Security "Trust Fund" and counting it as revenue, then immediately spent bribing voters with "free" stuff.
It's akin to a CEO taking his employees' 401k money and counting it as revenue. He'd be cooling his heels in the gray bar motel for perpetrating a fraud, which is what Uncle Sam is doing, but on a much grander scale.
Of course, this little accounting gimmick doesn't work any more, since Al Gore's lock box is empty and SS is now running chronic deficits. Short of massive tax increases, benefit cuts, or a combination, the demographics and a looming depression will guarantee massive shortfalls for a very long time. Rock, meet hard place.
Actually it's fantasy, meet fiction.
DeleteThey did not count money borrowed from the trust as revenue. It's treated as debt. Intragovernmental Holdings include the money borrowed from Social Security and other govt trusts.
09/29/2000
Debt Held by the Public 3,405,303,490,221.20
Intragovernmental Holdings 2,268,874,719,665.66
Total Public Debt Outstanding 5,674,178,209,886.86
Social Security is not running "chronic deficits." The Federal govt borrowed 27 billion from the Social Security Trust this past year.
Intragovernmental Holdings
09/28/2012 4,796,655,607,346.57
10/07/2013 4,823,856,543,950.98
The graph uses the calendar year, not the fiscal year. Debt fell 90 billion in calendar year 2000.
Delete12/31/1998 5,614,217,021,195.87
12/31/1999 5,776,091,314,225.33
12/29/2000 5,662,216,013,697.37