Government hide trillions

[flashl]

Uncle Sam's magic tricks hide trillions

Accounting practices disguise real face value of the government's increasing debt

When it comes to financial magic, the government of the United States takes the prize. Sleights of hand and clever distractions by purveyors of line-of-credit mortgages, living-benefit variable annuities and equity-indexed life insurance that I have illustrated in recent weeks are clumsy parlor tricks compared to the Big Magic of American politicians.

Consider the proud trumpeting that came from Washington at the close of the 2007 fiscal year. The deficit for the unified budget was, they crowed, down to a mere $162.8 billion.

In fact, our government is overspending at a far greater rate. Total federal debt increased by $497 billion over the same period.

Both parties implicated

But politicians of both parties use happy numbers to distract us. Democrats routinely criticize the Republican administration for crippling deficits, but they politely use the least damaging figure — the $162.8 billion. Why? Because references to more realistic accounting would reveal vastly greater numbers and would implicate both parties.

You can understand how this is done by taking a close look at a single statement on federal finance from the president's Council of Economic Advisers. The September statement shows that the "on-budget" ran a deficit of $344.3 billion in fiscal 2007. The "off-budget" ran a surplus of $181.5 billion. (The off-budget is dominated by Social Security, Medicare and other programs with trust funds.)

Add the two figures and you get the "unified budget," that $162.8 billion. In the past eight years, we've had two years of reported surpluses and six years of reported deficits. Altogether, the total reported deficit has run $1.3 trillion.

But if you examine another figure — gross federal debt — you'll see something strange. First, it has increased in each of the last eight years, even though two of them reported surpluses. Second, gross federal debt (which includes the obligations held by the Social Security and Medicare trust funds) has increased much faster than the deficits — some $3.3 trillion over the same eight-year period.

That's $2 trillion more than the reported $1.3 trillion in deficits over the period.

Can you spell Enron?

Read Entire Story

[Lasher]

1. Yup, the national debt is over $9 trillion now and growing by leaps and bounds.

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html

Guess if you pretend you never borrowed from Social Security and Medicare you never have to pay the money back, right?

[aquart]

2. All I ask is we take out of his personal account.

After that, put him in the stocks. Put the stocks on a flatbed truck. Drive the truck from town to town and state to state selling the right to throw rotten fruit at the bastard for five dollars for three ounces, ten dollars for eight ounces, eighteen dollars for one pound of rotten fruit. Fifty dollars for one rotten egg.

Pay those trillions off in a trice.

[flashl]

7. Yes, and you tell the retiring slackers they should have saved more. n/t

[soothsayer]

3. Our gov't is supposed to show us audited financial statements for each agency,

and guess what---they don't comply with this law! Without the ability to see where OUR money is actually being spent, we have no actual sovereignty. The government does what it wants, steals what it wants, and we have no idea what's going on.

snip from http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/savingTenn.html#p2

The 108th Congress' House Government Reform is chaired by Tom Davis (R-VA). Todd Platts (PA-19) is the Chairman of the subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations. The subcommittee's News subsection of the House Committee on Government Reform's website includes a press release for 7 April 2003: "What Will It Take for the Federal Government to Get a Handle on Its Accounting Practices?":

"On March 31, 2003, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released its audit of the consolidated financial statements for the Federal government for fiscal years 2002 and 2001. As in the previous five fiscal years, GAO found that the information in the consolidated financial statements could not be relied upon to express an "opinion" because of deficiencies in accounting and reporting across the executive branch. . . .

"For the sixth straight year, the GAO was unable to render an opinion on the Federal government's financial statements. In addition, the GAO reported significant material deficiencies that affected both the financial statements and the management of government operations. Further, the GAO found that the Federal government did not maintain effective internal controls and that Federal financial management systems did not substantially comply with the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 (FFMIA).

"In GAO's audit report, Comptroller General Walker pointed to three major impediments to achieving a clean opinion on the consolidated financial statements: 1) the resolution of the serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense (DOD); 2) the Federal government's inability to account for billions of dollars of transactions between federal government entities; and 3) the Federal government's inability to properly prepare financial statements."

end of snip

great source of articles on the $2.3 trillion missing from the pentagon, the billions missing from HUD, etc. http://www.solari.com/learn/articles_missingmoney.htm

[flashl]

4. Knowing about this lack of accounting from the government and

thinking about how COngress and the rest go through the "budget" shows really drives the point home that we REALLY don't know what's going on.

Every one some think about this the next time you read a story about the government taking a soldier's pay for equipment "lost" in Iraq.

Thanks for the information.

[MiniMe]

5. I don't know how anybody can believe that we have a surplus when

we have to keep increasing the borrowing limit.

[flashl]

6. Perhaps for Americans, government accounting is the "Big Bang"?

Big Bang Theory
Copyright © John Dobson

You have to have at least graduated high school to believe in the "Big Bang" Theory, because in high school three things happen:

First, you're persuaded the impossible is possible,
Then you become persuaded the possible is probable,
Finally you become persuaded the probable is certain.

It takes at least 3 years for this.
Children will never buy everything came from nothing.

[windoe]

8. Robbery. In broad daylight.

Nothing to see here, go back to sleep, move along and get out that credit card.
If more people got their brains wrapped around this heist I think even bubba from the woods would come out fighting.

[Quantess]

9. k