You think that the budget deficit increased from $459 billion in 2008 to $1,414 billion in 2009? Think again. The budget numbers you see bandied about on the news are computed the basis of cash, not accrued, so they don’t take into account liabilities that are incurred today but won’t be spent until later.
The Financial Report of the United States Government reports the accrued numbers, and they are really grim. Including entitlements, the net position of the US Government was -$50.153 trillion in 2007, -$53.174 trillion in 2008, -$57.334 trillion in 2009. So the real deficit was $3,021 billion in 2008 and $4,160 billion in 2009.
In terms of GDP, the net position was -356% in 2007, -368% in 2008, and -402% in 2009. The deficits were 21% in 2008 and 29% in 2009. Another way of looking at it is the difference in percentages, which tells us how much our debt worsened in relation to our ability to pay: 12% from 2007 to 2008, and a whopping 34% from 2008 to 2009.
Unfortunately, none of that is the bad news. The bad news is that this all assumes current policy (e.g., no fixes to Medicare reimbursements or AMT), which absolutely isn’t going to happen. The worse news is that this doesn’t include Obamacare, so the 2010 report will be even worse.
(Via Instapundit.)
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