Human Events
by Bruce Bartlett

12/20/05

Last week, two new federal reports were published showing once again that the nation's fiscal position is dangerously out of whack. And by every measure, the situation has gotten substantially worse as a result of George W. Bush's policies. The first report is known as the 'Financial Report of the United States Government.' The latest is for fiscal year 2005, which ended on Sept. 30, and was published by the Treasury Department and the Government Accountability Office on Dec. 15. The summary shows a gross federal debt of $9.9 trillion, offset by assets of $1.5 trillion, for a net debt of $8.5 trillion. At the end of fiscal year 2001, the comparable numbers were $7.4 trillion for the gross debt, $926 billion for assets and a net debt of $6.5 trillion. Thus we see that the national debt has increased by $2 trillion on Bush's watch. However, because of accounting conventions, these figures greatly understate the rise of national indebtedness...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=11005


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp