As Magnifico noted in a this diary earlier today, the Congressional Budget Office released its budget/deficit projections and noted that (Newsflash!) "The nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course." However, the numbers in their chart, though they ARE formulated the same way they have been for decades, don't really put the deficit in perspective. They project a "record" deficit of $438 billion for FY 2009, but the reality is much, much worse.
First of all, they state total federal revenues as $2.720 trillion. What they DON'T say is that this figure includes roughly $950 billion in Social Security receipts. Actual non-SocSec revenue is about $1.77 trillion.
The $3.158 trillion in "total outlays" number includes roughly $627 billion in SocSec disbursements, so non-SocSec expenditures are actually $2.531 trillion.
The difference between non-SocSec revenue and non-SocSec expenditures is then roughly $761 billion. THIS is the actual deficit, if the general operating budget doesn't borrow from OUR retirement fund.
So, how to reduce this enormous deficit without increasing revenues or borrowing from Social Security?
Well, we could eliminate every general operating expense except:
- Treasury ($550 billion, mostly interest on the National Debt)
- Defense ($500 billion, NOT including off-budget expenditures for Afghanistan and Iraq)
- Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP ($650 billion)
This would mean totally cutting ALL of the following Departments and Programs (listed in order from biggest to smallest):
USDA (including food stamps, Forest Service and food inspections)
Veterans Affairs
Transportation (infrastructure)
Education
Labor (unemployment insurance, etc.)
Civil Defense programs
HUD
Homeland Security
NIH
Justice (DEA, FBI, etc.)
Energy
State (Yup! The entire State Department)
NASA
foreign aid (including military assistance)
Interior
Commerce
Corps of Engineers
EPA
Federal Judiciary
NSF
CDC
Small Business Administration
Legislative Branch budget (including salaries of House and Senate members)
FDA
BUT THAT STILL WOULD NOT BALANCE THIS DEFICIT.
And here's the Big Lie that you'll begin to hear (same as it ever was):
Without telling you that they're borrowing the $320+ billion SocSec annual surplus to cover general operating expenses), the Republicans will still include the $627 billion in SocSec disbursements and lump that in with the roughly $650 billion spent on Medicare/Medicaid (and the relatively minor expenses for unemployment, food stamps, etc.) to support their claim that 40% or so of the federal budget is "wasted on social spending" that we MUST bring under control. Outside of Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security disbursements, "social spending" amounts to about $181 billion (IF you include the entire Dept. of Education budget as "social spending"), about 7% of federal expenditures - and roughly the same amount as the "off-budget" expenses for Afghanistan and Iraq.
And now we get to bail out Fannie and Freddie and who knows how many other financial institutions?
"Deep doo-doo" doesn't begin to cover it