Yesterday afternoon I was watching CNN Headline News and a story came up about the budget deficit. Bush was speaking to a small gathering of (obviously) hand-picked supporters about the numbers for the 2005 fiscal year. I believe the original estimate for the deficit was officially reported to be $318 billion. In his speech yesterday, Bush says something like "....the number for the deficit is actually going to be $296 billion." And now are you ready for this? The people in the audience start applauding! Like that is some great achievement. Whew! I can sleep much better now that the deficit is only $296 billion.
What the Smirking Chimp failed to tell us is that the accounting method utilized by the White House is most likely the same brand of accounting incorporated by Andy Fastow and Jeff Skilling. The $296 billion does not include future employee benefit costs such as federal employee pensions and health care costs. The Department of the Treasury has released it's financial report of the US government and, with those omitted costs factored in, the actual federal budget deficit for FY 2005 is $760 billion! It is also important to note that this number does not include future social security and Medicare costs. Then we're talking $3.5 trillion.
My question is "Is the United States of America heading for financial ruin?"