republican finances

The Financial Report of the United States Government, the summation of the 2006 fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, found that had the federal government used the same accounting practices used by the private sector, the 2006 federal budget deficit would have been $449.5 billion, not the widely reported $247.7 billion.

While the official national debt is pegged at about $8.5 trillion, according to Walker, the net present value of the government's "total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing approximately four times the nation's total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about $20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000."

So, here's the overall picture - and it's not a pretty one. The Baby Boomer generation is starting to take their retirements, pushing up the costs of Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security should be solvent, but the money that was supposed to be set aside for the Boomer retirements has already been spent. We're paying hundreds of billions of dollars a year in interest payments to China, Japan and other countries that hold U.S. Treasury securities - borrowing that is covering the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.