VirgilT7@aol.com wrote:
>Our economy is doing wonderfully, we're turning in budget surpluses
I never quite got this "budget surplus" thing; people keep saying that the budget is balanced or even has a surplus, yet the national debt on 7/7/98[1] was:
$5,530,116,137,980.45
And a year earlier was:
$5,355,915,100,573.58
So in a year the national debt has increased by about $175,000,000,000 yet there's a balanced budget? Maybe this government math is just too hard for me, but I don't think my bank would be too happy if I were to claim that I'd earnt as much as I'd spent, yet go $175 billion further into debt.
For the national debt not to increase by the end of the fiscal year, the government have to find at least $120,000,000,000 from somewhere; in the same period last year they overspent by around $60,000,000,000.
Where's the surplus?
Mark
[1] see http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm; that's the
latest date available as I write.