"Dave" wrote in message
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 02:12:03 GMT, "Maxprop" said:


Most folks have difficulty discerning the federal deficit (above) from an
annual budget deficit.

Including you. Deficit (as opposed to accumulated deficit) is an income
statement item. Debt, on the other hand, (which is what Horvath gave
numbers
for) is a balance sheet item. A number of things can affect debt,
including
what items are treated as capital expenditures rather than current
expense,
and what other items are subjected to the fiction that they aren't part of
the guvmint's expenditures at all (like social security).

Save your bean-counting pedantry for someone else, Dave. I took several
semesters of accounting in college and know the difference. As the terms
are commonly used by the media and politicians, they are inaccurate. Big
****ing deal. The point I was making was that some actually believe that
Clinton wiped out the federal accumulated deficit (or debt, if you prefer).
Which of course he didn't, nor has or will any president.

Max