Question for Accountants: how much money do we have left?

[cliss]

I'm particularly interested in people who have a governmental accounting background.

Here's my question:

How much money do we have left to spend? I'm getting concerned because Bush and his cronies are still spending like there is no tomorrow. Just yesterday, there was a thread about "bush requesting $75 million dollars for propaganda in Iran to "Introduce Democracy" in that country. Today, RumsFailed is asking for more funding so we can push propaganda in the Middle East "24/7", meaning around the clock.

Last week, Bush requested ANOTHER $75 billion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan. The list just never ends. Presently, we have spent $400 billion in Iraq & Afgh. To boot, we have given the biggest tax cut in history. Our balance of trade is sliding off the map; it's just out of control. Every day, we have to borrow $2 billion dollars just to finance our debt. Not the principal, just the interest.

Now for the bad part: I don't think we have any money left. I'm an accountant, and back in 2001 I predicted that we would be broke by 2005 if we went into Iraq.

Recently, the Federal Reserve has announced that they will quit publishing the M-3 money supply. Meaning = we don't know what they are doing any more. They could be printing billions of worthless greenbacks, and we'd never know.

Do you think we'll go broke? How long do you think we will last?

[ret5hd]

1. 2 answers: 1) an infinite amount 2) we're already broke...

an infinite amount because of the printing press

we're already broke because any fiat money is debt, not an asset

[waiting for hope]

2. I can tell you....

We are so far in the RED, red sharpies are getting jealous. China has a big old bitch collar around the US's neck...

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Let me put it to you like this: The federal debt is ca. $8.25 TRILLION

and if Congress doesn't vote to raise the debt ceiling within weeks from now, allegedly the country will be in default of its ability to pay its bills. You know, bankrupt.

[hopeisaplace]

5. in other words, -8.25 trillion would bring you to Zero (a Trump Analogy?)

:yoiks:

is 8.25 Trillion the debt or the "deficit" - if it's not
the deficit, anyone know what the deficit is?

[Telly Savalas]

6. The deficit is in the neigborhood of $400 billion annually.

Give or take several tens of billions. (But what's a few billion among friends?)

The $8.25 trillion is just the accumulation of borrowings in the past used to finance deficits. It's a scary looking number, but as a percentage of the total economy, our national debt has actually been worse at other points in our history. If we continue down the road we're on, it will lead to serious trouble, but if the grown-ups take control of the government sometime in the near future, then we should be able to fix the problem. We've done it before.

[hopeisaplace]

8. Gheesh sad situation from the 7 trillion dollar or so SURPLUS they had

gheesh..that was a 7 trillion dollar surplus wasn't it under Clinton?
thanks, yes that makes sense that $400billionish is the deficit...

[slaveplanet]

7. according to Dallas Morning News

Buried, but not forgotten
The study shows the true obligations of government were 10 times larger than Treasury debt held by the public. It shows the present value of these unfunded obligations is a mind-numbing $43 trillion.

In a recent telephone conversation I asked one of the project economists, Jagadeesh Gokhale, why he thought his work was cut. Dr. Gokhale, a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, was circumspect. He suggested the figures were a surprise to the new Treasury secretary.

Here's another interpretation: Treasury Secretary Snow's first task was to sell the president's tax cut. The sales job would be awkward if an official government document announced we were already $43 trillion in the hole. (The Federal Reserve, by the way, recently put the net worth of all households at $39 trillion. This problem goes way beyond taxing the rich, the poor or the middle class.)

So the generational accounting figures disappeared from the budget.

But they did not cease to exist. In early March the other economist on the project, Kent Smetters, testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the United States in the House of Representatives. Professor Smetters, an expert in Social Security and Medicare, is at the Wharton School in Philadelphia.

AND THAT WAS IN 2003

I suspect it is still far higher..

more- http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/P49070.asp

[hopeisaplace]

9. thanks, whoa...mind numbing isn't it

where is this all gonna end I up I wonder.
The incompetence of people who run governments is beyond belief.

[cliss]

10. $43 trillion....oh man,

this is FAR worse than I thought. OMG...we'll never be able to crawl out from under this debt.

Now I'm wondering: are we unique as far as an economy hell-bent on self-destruction? We've got to be some kind of record at this stage.

It may actually be months and not years before the jig is up.

Thanks for the background info. Headed for Money central....

[slaveplanet]

12. Yes it brings a new perspective

on Exactly why they are selling our Ports, our Railroads , Our roads, our water, our energy infrastructure, Our Federal lands....We are OWNED, lock, stock and barrel...like pigs in a pen...mere Slaves and Fodder

[cliss]

13. In a way, this explains the radical,

out-of-control nature of this administration. I've always felt that these people were like Riverboat Gamblers, holding the mortgage money in one hand, and blowing desperately on the dice with the other.

One writer on Counter Punch called this administration "going for broke". I guess at least "broke" is the right word.

I think we need to fasten our seat belts because it's going to be a wild ride.

[depakid]

4. After March, most people won't exactly know

because the Fed is going to stop reporting M3, one of the major money supply measures.

[TheBaldyMan]

11. Technically speaking "you are flat fucking broke"

You could start to claw your way out of the hole by ditching those ridiculous tax-breaks for millionares and getting out of Iraq. Don't attack anyone else for a couple of decades at least.

Reversing every 'economic' policy of Bushco would also help a great deal.

Seriously, I don't think you can wait for 2006 to impeach the moran and his cronies, it always was a matter of urgency.

[cliss]

14. Yes, I agree. I don't think we can wait until 2005.

It may be too late by then.

Here's the most amazing part: think of all the people in the government, John "Snowjob" Snow, Alan Pondscum, all those briefcase-swinging government financial bureaucrats.

They probably all know that we're going over the edge. What do they think is going to happen to this country? They probably think they'll escape the holocaust. They've probably bought lots of real estate in Madagascar and Argentina.

But they won't get away with it because it this country folds, there is nowhere on earth they will be safe.....

[TheBaldyMan]

15. America sneezes and the rest of the world catches cold

IMO Bush Jr has always had one of daddy's rich friends bail him out in the past, the only trouble is now he is the rich uncle and he has no one to turn to and nobody to blame. We are all going to pay for this frat-boy fucking up the US economy.