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To: Enigma who wrote (1254)	2/11/1999 11:19:00 PM
From: TimbaBear	Respond to of 3536

Try this: publicdebt.treas.gov

To: Enigma who wrote (1254)	2/12/1999 2:08:00 AM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3536

>the accountant in me says that if the debt increases there can't be a paydown or surplus. This is a popular misconception. Let me refer to "Understanding the Federal Debt and Deficit," published by the Fed NY: How large is the debt? As of October 1, 1993, (hey, what do you expect, this is a government publication) the gross federal debt was $4.35 trillion [currently 5.6]. But many people look at net debt, which excludes about $1 trillion [currently 1.8] of the gross debt that is held by various government accounts. Net debt, also referred to as publicly held debt, is a more accurate way to measure how much debt the U.S. government has to repay. Why? Because when the government lends to itself, it hasn't borrowed any new funds. The $1 trillion [1.8] is money that the U.S. Treasury owes to different parts of government, such as the Social Security Trust Funds and the Highway Trust Funds; it's purely a matter of internal government bookkeeping. It's more accurate to consider the net debt, which is what the government as a whole owes, and that's about $3.3 trillion [3.8].