To: tejek who wrote (219211 ) 2/14/2005 9:03:16 PM From: neolib Respond to The federal budget surplus for fiscal year 1999 was $122.7 billion, and $69.2 billion for fiscal year 1998. Those back-to-back surpluses, the first since 1957, allowed the Treasury to pay down $138 billion in national debt. Instead, the president explained, the $5.7 trillion national debt has been reduced by $360 billion in the last three years -- $223 billion this year alone. We need to review government finances and accounting for real understanding of what is happening. The Public Debt (using the term as it is defined by the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt*) is $5.6778 trillion. This Total Public Debt consists of two components, Marketable Debt of $3.0565 trillion (this is the debt that is traded and is currently being paid down), and Non Marketable Debt which is government IOUs of $2.6115 trillion (held in various government trusts). A $9.8 billion non-interest bearing debt is also outstanding. All figures are for August 31, 2000. The average interest rate on all the Total Public Debt is 6.47% (adding annual interest expense of some $360 billion, the third largest federal expense, after SS and Defense).
