OT: US National debt

[rdouglass]

Rasorow said:
...Considering that relatively recently we had a surplus in the budget...

And when might that be? I don't think there has been a tru surplus since the 60's. I think it (what you're referencing) was all just a paper shuffle; somewhat similar to the Enron scam. It was just positioning against the Social Security funds the way I remember it.

[Rasorow]

Perhaps, if that was the case at least then we could cheat enough to look like we had a surplus......

Rasorow

[geoschmo]

rdouglass said:

And when might that be? I don't think there has been a tru surplus since the 60's. I think it (what you're referencing) was all just a paper shuffle; somewhat similar to the Enron scam. It was just positioning against the Social Security funds the way I remember it.

Don't confuse the national debt with the annual deficit. There was a real dollar surplus in the anual budget for a little while there. The total debt, which is all the accumulated deficits from year to year wasn't gone, but it was getting smaller for a couple years. Now that we are running deficits again the debt is back to increasing.