Real federal deficit dwarfs official tally

The deficit was $5 trillion last year
The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.
The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government's books

www.usatoday.com...

Our children will curse the names Pelosi, Reid, Obama for the bankrupting debt Democrats laid on them since Dems took Congress in Jan 2007.... Dems have DOUBLED our national debt in only 6 years... to $16 Trillion..
Congress runs America, and the majority party runs Congress..
Check the record.

In Jan 2007, the Pelosi/Reid/Obama Dem's Congress inherited 4.4% unemployment, DOW at record highs, $1.83 a gallon gas, 54 straight months of economic growth, $161 billion/dropping deficit, Fed Spending that DECREASED, and a 60+ year record of clean/safe drilling..a Fed debt HALF of now...prosperity that continued for nearly a year....

Yet Dems spin BS that they inherited a mess???.
How have Dems done since?

Originally posted by Surfrat
Our children will curse the names Pelosi, Reid, Obama for the bankrupting debt Democrats laid on them since Dems took Congress in Jan 2007.... Dems have DOUBLED our national debt in only 6 years... to $16 Trillion..
Congress runs America, and the majority party runs Congress..
Check the record.

Dood get off the 2 party Kick
wake up
Its a blame game back & forth Dem vs. Rep
when they are both the same group of AssClowns

they both need to go

I keep seeing this line of thinking which is wrong, as it doesn't include any income during the ongoing periods.

It would be like figuring your net worth by adding all the rest of money you will be spending the rest of your life, without including any income you will earn during that time.

reply to post by Surfrat


They will also curse Regan,Bush,Bush B and Clinton. Get real.

Federal spending as a share of the economy will average over 24 percent during Obama's term, and each and every year of that term will see a higher share than during any year since the Second World War. That apparently qualifies as 'significant fiscal restraint' Obama-style.

Fiscal responsibility? Obama has had by far the largest budget deficits, driven in large part by the eruption in spending.
As bad as spending is today, President Obama wants to spend more, especially on transportation, infrastructure, education and research. He says that more spending, paid for with higher taxes, is the key to getting the U.S. economy back on track -- even though that strategy has failed miserably over the past three years. Here's the president's problem. The American people don't want Washington to spend more, they want it to spend less. They don't want Washington to tax more, they want it to tax less.

reply to post by KoolerKing


Why would they curse Clinton?

He was the only fiscally responsible President of modern times.

Other issues, such as NAFTA, I'd agree but your comment seems strangely inappropriate on a deficit thread. Clinton was widely known for leaving office with a budget surplus. If you take out interest payments on previous debt he did not add a cent to the national debt.