Fuzzy Bush math

[aggiesal]

Source: CNN Money - Fortune Magazine

You're about to hear that the budget deficit is falling. Don't believe it, warns Fortune's Allan Sloan. The deficit is much, much bigger than you think.

FORTUNE Magazine
By Allan Sloan, Fortune senior editor-at-large
September 4 2007: 8:10 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- There will be lots of celebrating in Washington next month when the Treasury announces that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2007, which ends Sept. 30, will have dropped to a mere $158 billion, give or take a few bucks.

That will be $90 billion below the reported 2006 deficit, and will be toasted by the White House and Treasury as a great accomplishment.

But I have a nasty little secret for you, folks. If you use realistic numbers rather than what I call WAAP -- Washington Accepted Accounting Principles -- the real federal deficit for the current fiscal year is more than 2 1/2 times the stated deficit.

Why am I inflicting this information on you? Because there's been so much joyous noise about the budget emanating from Washington, despite the subprime mess and market meltdowns (which don't bode particularly well for future tax collections), that my natural contrarianism makes me feel like bombing the buzz machine.

In addition, so many investors (and speculators) are fleeing to the supposed safe haven of Treasury securities lately that it's a good time to take a look at what's really going on with the federal budget.

Welcome to Bailout City

If a publicly traded corporation tried keeping books the WAAP way rather than the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) way, its auditors would be on the phone to the SEC before you could say "Sarbanes-Oxley."

*********************************************************************************************

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/31/magazines/fortune/deficit_sloan.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2007090408

---

This needs to be looked into more closely to see what's what.

[toopers]

1. This has been an issue for years . . .

I hope that we are not just now looking into it, or concerned about it.