Federal Debt up $26 TRILLION Since Dubya Took Office !!!

[lanah]

I just read this and hadn't seen it on DU. Has anyone heard about this?

The federal government’s fiscal exposures
now total more than $46 trillion,
up from about $20 trillion in 2000.

This staggering revelation was included in the US Dept. of Treasury's own report.
http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/05frusg/05frusg.pdf
2005 Financial Report of the United States Government (1mb PDF)
(Page 28 printed, or pg 32 in Adobe reader)

That's an additional $26 TRILLION in debt since Dubya took office!

Here's the full quote from the Treasury report:

The current financial reporting model does not clearly and transparently show the wide range of responsibilities, programs, and activities that may either obligate the federal government to future spending or create an expectation for such spending. Thus, it provides a potentially unrealistic and misleading picture of the federal government’s overall performance, financial condition, and future fiscal outlook. The federal government’s gross debt* in the consolidated financial statements was about $8 trillion as of September 30, 2005. This number excludes such items as the gap between the present value of future promised and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans’ health care, and a range of other liabilities (e.g., federal employee and veteran benefits payable), commitments, and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support. Including these items, the federal government’s fiscal exposures now total more than $46 trillion, up from about $20 trillion in 2000. This translates into a burden of about $156,000 per American or approximately $375,000 per full-time worker, up from $72,000 and $165,000 respectively, in 2000. These amounts do not include future costs resulting from Hurricane Katrina or the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Continuing on this unsustainable path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security.
http://benfrank.net/patriots/

Do you think the government has been misleading us? Here everyone is trying to pay down their own debts, already paying interest every month, and the government has gotten you into much worse debt without your knowledge mainly for a war of choice to make the rich richer...oh and tax cuts to help the rich keep all that money.

[sakabatou]

1. In the words of Kyle from South Park

"Holy shit, dude!"

[Wilms]

2. Reagan would be proud. n/t

[LiberalUprising]

3. PDF link just crashed Mozilla &

Firefox

Anybody else get thru ok?

[lanah]

4. It's a 1MB file

rt click save as and open the file directly- that might work

[LiberalUprising]

5. Thanks, that works and

Welcome

[Up2Late]

7. Yes, I got it, but I also have the Firefox plug-in that let's me choose...

...how to handle the pdf file. I can't remember what it's called.

[slaveplanet]

8. PDF DOWNLOAD 0.6

It is an essential extension for firefox.

and it works great...no more getting hung up by slow loading PDF pages if you're on dialup.

Just rightclick and save to disk

[Yupster]

6. This article is pointing out

that the government by the promise of the Congress has obligated itself to pay incredible amounts of money out over the next few generations.

If you take the projections for future promised outlays of social security, medicare, medicaid, veteran's benefits, government employee retirement plans, etc, the debt is much more than what the government reports.

This has been obvious for decades and it is also obvious that the government will not be able to meet those promises, but then comes the problem.

What are we going to do about it?

[slaveplanet]

9. The 8T+ is treasury debt

Think of it like your house payment...it's what is currently due.

The 46T(which I feel is still lowball) Is the total mortgage.

It was left out on purpose when they went for the tax cuts.

[lanah]

10. this explains everything

now I understand why they are trying to kill off all the old people, the veterans etc- trying to keep the national debt down.

[lanah]

11. Has this been covered by any mainstream journalists?

This seems like a big story- They admit they are misleading people in our own treasury department report!
:wtf:

What happened to all the great muckrakers? Now all we get for journalism is "Bush said this, Condi said that" no one digs for information on their own, just repeat Bush talking points....much safer....

[lanah]

12. I know how we can fix this...

First we fire all of congress and take back their health care and pensions.

Then we repeal the tax cuts, retroactively.

Then we go after the war profiteers, sell their companies at auction, return all of the money to the government.

Then we take all of the personal wealth from the criminals in our current government.

Then we let all of the innocent people in jail for victimless crimes (ie drug war) out of prison- that alone will save billions.

Cancel NAFTA

that might set us on the right track....

[0007]

17. Sounds like a damn good plan to me! n/t

There has to be a pull up on corporations and the money they hide out of the country, and the oversea jobs.

[Protagoras]

13. It's easy to fall into the "Don't they realize?" response

then you have to remind yourself that this is in fact their goal. The NEOCON/Norquist agenda is exactly to bankrupt and then privatize for pennies on the dollar. They are doing this deliberately. It's not a conspiracy because they openly post and talk about it. They want to kill the "Middle-class" and "welfare" state. They want all vestages of "social" removed from the economic system. And then, when we have nothing but debt, they write it off and buy up the pieces (because they are the ones who have been gaining while everyone else has been losing)...

And then we have the perfect global economic system. Those who can push money UP will be rewarded, and those who drain money DOWN will be superfulous and eliminated. Survival of the Fittest (or richest). These people with Billions of dollars are buying up hard assets as fast as they can. They are buying property and businesses around the world. They don't think of themselves as "Californian's or Vermonters or whatever" because it if sucks there they just move to a high security gated community or better yet to their Villa in the Mediteranian. They think like Robber Baron owners...we think like hourly laborers....we don't even begin to understand the motives the other has on any moral or emotional level.

That's their plan. They don't hide it. And they know they don't have to do much else to achieve it. We've let the titanic hit the iceberg...now it's just watching the inevitable result.

Our task is to find a patch kit large enough...and then somehow find the freedom to apply it...all before the boat sinks.

I'm not optimistic. But I refuse to sit back and let them win without a struggle.

[lanah]

14. I hear ya!...and I agree...

It is going exactly according to their plan...

"I'm not optimistic. But I refuse to sit back and let them win without a struggle"

But you gotta have hope to keep ya going
:smoke:

[Protagoras]

15. Actually I think there are lots of people who continue without hope

they keep going despite knowing they've lost because even though they are doomed...they refuse to let the bastards win in a walk-off.

pride, anger, revenge,.. lots of possible things keep some people swinging long after the fight is scored against them. Even when hope is gone.

[upi402]

16. still more blood in the turnip

squeeze us harder BushCo and see what you get.
Like the line from V about the law of the universe, for every action there is an equal opposition.