To: Wayners who wrote (681116 ) 4/30/2005 5:13:55 AM From: DuckTapeSunroof Respond to National debt (up to the minute):uwsa.com mwhodges.home.att.net mwhodges.home.att.net That $139 billion difference between gross and net is the amount that government should have paid to such major 'off-budget' entities (like the social security trust fund) for surpluses general government had siphoned-off for other spending, but did not pay the owed interest in cash and instead gave the trust funds internal IOUs which are not marketable yet drove the debt even further up. This practice allows government to claim they did not spend that money (although they owed it), and thereby understate the budget deficit (and further increases federal debt) by said amount. So, not only is the social security trust fund (for example) holding non-marketable IOUs instead of marketable assets for the FICA surplus payments (because all the surplus was siphoned off for non-pension spending), but it is also holding internal IOUs (instead of marketable assets) for all interest owed it for all the surplus siphoned off from the trusts by the general government. (see the Trust Fund Report "where's the trust fund surplus" for discussion on how funds are siphoned from trust funds for non-pension use, leaving behind non-marketable IOUs while understating the budget deficit)."mwhodges.home.att.net federalbudget.com
