Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Bucco, I'm not sure what the deficit was at the end of 2008, but it was surely more than $500 billion. One of the problems was the way the Obama administration is "counting the beans" compared to the way the Bush administration counted.

The entire cost of the wars in the Middle East were not included in the statement of the deficit. While Bush was in office, he financed the war with many special appropriation bills that were kept separate when the calculation of the deficit was made and discussed. The same was true of the $750 billion in "economic stimulus" money that was requested by the Bush administration and approved by Congress after the election, but before the inaguration. That wasn't included in the deficit either.

While this Congress has taken spending to another level in a recent partial year spending bill, and the new President opted not to veto their spending plans, at least he should be credited for putting all the expenditures in a single budget so the public can see exactly what's being spent and how much must be borrowed to fund the spending. That's a level of "transparency" that didn't exist for the last eight years, at least.

Maybe someone else can actually come up with what the total federal spending was in 2008 in comparison to the proposed spending for FY 2009. Remember, while the President has proposed a budget for 2009, Congress has not yet chosen to address it with enabling legislation. They can opt to spend less, or a lot more than was recommended by the President. Other than his veto and the power of the bully pulpit, the President has no Constitutional authority over government spending. The Hoiuse of Representatives has total authority over spending.

One number I am sure of, because I just read it in the Wall Street Journal last week, is that the current national debt is just a few dollars short of $550,000 for every household in America. That doesn't count the deficit that will be added as the result of the 2009 budget.