[Homestead] Teamsters endorse Obama

Don Bowen KI6DIU don.bowen at earthlink.net
Sun Feb 24 22:09:33 EST 2008


At 2/22/2008, you wrote:
>We had the illusion of a balanced budget because of the tech stock bubble.
>Once the illusion of the bubble burst, there went the balanced budget, or
>rather, the illusion of a balanced budget.

We had the illusion of a balanced budget because no one reports the Unified 
budget.  This is the budget flow that includes payments to the Social 
Security trust fund, currently about $335B.  For example the current joke 
of a budget submitted by the current administration dumps a publicly 
acknowledged deficient of $400B on the next president.  Throw in the Social 
Security payments and the deficient is over $740B.  That has been going on 
since Greenspan and Bush 1.

The way it works is that Social Security monies in excess of current needs 
is placed in "Special" government bonds.  That flow is currently about 
$335B a year but may decline as the economy slows.  The income from those 
bonds is treated as revenue, not borrowed funds.  That is one major reason 
Bush 2 was so eager to privatize Social Security, when those bonds come 
due, massive tax increases will be needed unless the US government defaults.



Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com



More information about the Homestead mailing list