From: Don Bowen KI6DIU <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Teamsters endorse Obama
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:09:33 -0800
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.