By By Foster Kizer
A recent article in "Fortune Magazine" has brought to light the bogus hype and blatantly false figures that the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2007 is much smaller than what actual figures dictate.
President Bush and the Republicans are touting the fact that the federal budget will be $90 billion less than the 2006 budget. They claim that it will be a mere $158 billion. According to the "Fortune Magazine" article by Allan Sloan the current fiscal year federal deficit is 2 and a half times what the President has stated. And here is why: the federal treasury takes in about $78 billion more in payroll and income taxes than it shells out. The federal government borrows this excess by giving the trust fund and IOU and then spends this money. This borrowed money is not in the stated deficit. In addition the federal treasury will take $108 billion of interest on the trust funds $2.2 trillion and then issue another IOU for $186 billion. This debt is not counted either. You may remember when the Democrats had the White House, we had a budget surplus. Now go figure, who spends more of your tax dollars, the Republicans or the Democrats? Now all this borrowed money had to be paid back someday. The Republicans are sending us into oblivion. Now the actual deficit figures are more than $400 billion. So who is going to pay for this increased deficit, you and I will and our children and grandchildren. So just how do the Republicans expect us to pay this huge deficit? The only way the government can pay this huge bill is to increase taxes. I wish someone would explain to me just how and why the Republicans use these accounting practices. If you or I did that, we would be hauled into court in short order. The President has the ability to veto or reign in this wild spending and has chosen not to do so. This wild spending cannot be solely blamed on the Republicans because many Democrats also want their share of this pork barrel spending for their districts. We must hold all of our representatives accountable for wasteful spending on things such as the war in Iraq.
Foster Kizer is owner of Royal Oaks Bed &Breakfast. He can be reached at 368-8722.