Here's one truly bi-partisan outcome for which everyone seems to want to take credit: the alleged reduction of the budget deficit. At CNN Money, senior editor Allen Sloan takes D.C. to task over the creative accounting techniques that would land most executives in jail.
(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 September 30, will have dropped to a mere $158 billion, give or take a few bucks.
...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.
It should be interesting to see how Gabby Giffords presents the numbers in next year's election when she reports how well she "returned [congress] to fiscal responsibility."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Ace,
Please. A freshman responsible for the deficit? She will answer for her earmarks.
I'm more alarmed by Lord Cheney's Iraq project to feed his friends. Last I heard, $3 Billion a DAY?
What do her earmarks total over years? A tenth of what Cheney gives his friends each day?
I hate the deficit as much as you do. If you want to see where we are hemorrhaging, the pie charts are online.
Earmarks are only part of the problem. Even if you eliminate them, you still have a huge spending deficit problem to resolve. However, eliminating earmarks is a good start.
The point is that Giffords campaigned on, among other things, fiscal responsibility. She suggested she would infuence that in a major way. Now she will have to answer for not delivering. She can't go around pointing fingers to get herself elected without expecting not to have to account for her results. Ace's point is that she will, no doubt, use some numbers to try and convince voters that she did a good job. It will be interesting to see which numbers she presents and how she takes credit.
Post a Comment