How the hell do you leave a billion dollars a day OFF BOOKS?

[Atman]

Barbara Starr just reported on the money Bush is spending on his little ME folly. How the hell does so much money get left off the books. Where does it come from? How does ANYTHING get balanced? I just don't understand how Bush can legally do this. WTF?

[Double T]

1. It is called deficit spending, it is called keeping two sets of books,....

it is done to make the economy look better than it really is, it is done to make the government look less irresponsible than they really are, and the funds come from your children's children's pockets and purses. NOTHING in Washington, D.C. is 'balanced', most of ALL the politicians.

[bryant69]

2. They've been doing it for a couple of years now

It let's congress off the hooks as far as keeping spending down goes, which I suppose they find beneficial.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[htuttle]

3. It's easy when you can print your own currency

[bananas]

4. A billion a day or a week?

I thought it was a billion a week - did I miss something?

[ProfessorGAC]

5. It's Not Off The Books Atman!

If that's what she said, then she's wrong. It's off budget. The $ are still accounted for, which is why the budget deficit keeps going up. The BUDGET indicated a deficit of about $200 billion, everyone in Congress and Silverspoon celebrated about reducing the deficit, and then we spent this extra off-budget money. So, every quarter, that money is counted against revenue, and the deficit estimate went up every quarter.

It's not off the books, though. It's not even a separate set of books. It's just a different page in the general ledger.

Don't get me wrong. I don't like it. But, this isn't a matter of cooking the books. The money is fully accounted. (Well, except for that $2 billion missing in Iraq, anyway.)
The Professor