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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (466027)3/24/2009 2:19:04 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (1) of 1574493
 
You can start with Obama's switch to more honest accounting. It's one reason his deficits are as big as they are: He's counting stuff that Bush kept off-budget.

Uh, not exactly.

Do you know that one of the most fundamental principles of accounting is "comparability"? That is, you don't just make changes in year x+1 that will make it more difficult or impossible to compare with year x.

This is such an egregious violation that substantial portions of any accounting curriculum involve "accounting changes" and how revisions to accounting processes are incorporated into financial statements in such a way that comparability isn't compromised.

The Obama budget is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of why we accountants have focused so much on comparability -- without comparability, the possibility of manipulation is greatly increased. And Obama budget is the subject of precisely this kind of manipulation.

Here's the gimmick. You include the cost of wars in the Year 1 budget, knowing full well the cost of those wars will decline over time (since your plan is to take Bush's win and bail on one of them, and surrender on the other). Then, as those REAL costs are reduced, you simply increase spending in other places to absorb them. The public sees on a trillion a year (lol, that takes some getting used to -- "only" a trillion) in deficits, but in reality, it is far more when compared with budgets that would have been were Bush accounting still being employed.

As to SS and Medicare, this is a $50-60 Trillion problem. To suggest that it is something that is just going to appear in 10 years is borne of total ignorance.

Where were you when I spent all that time explaining it to RW (who finally, I think, got it through his head)?
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