Former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark softened his denials of presidential aspirations to a "maybe" yesterday, amid his increasing criticism of the Bush administration.
Clark accused the president of squandering a $5 trillion budget surplus in two years, largely by borrowing to give large tax cuts to the rich.
"If it weren't for the law, you'd call that theft," he saidFirst of all, the IRS collected less than $2 trillion last year, so it's hard to see how "tax cuts to the rich" during Bush's two years could approach anywhere near $5 trillion. But more to the point, from 1789-2002 the federal government has collected nearly $32 trillion and spent over $35 trillion [.xls]. If it weren't for the law, you'd call all of it theft. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 21, 2003 03:14 PM
ummm, somebody has been fudging the numbers.
The totals columns spreadsheet you link to shows a deficit of $4,739,207 million outlay beyond income but the national debt as of 6/19/2003 is $6,598,368 million according to 'national debt clock' which uses treasury figures.
I am no accountant but something is seriously wrong here. I think that relying on these numbers as gospel is not a good idea.