tazzygirl
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Update, Feb. 11: Some readers wrote to us saying we should have made clear the difference between the federal deficit and the federal debt. A deficit occurs when the government takes in less money than it spends in a given year. The debt is the total amount the government owes at any given time. So the debt goes up in any given year by the amount of the deficit, or it decreases by the amount of any surplus. The debt the government owes to the public decreased for a while under Clinton, but the debt was by no means erased.
http://factcheck.org/2008/02/the-budget-and-deficit-under-clinton/
Page 4.
This chart shows that the Government has progressed from an accrual deficit in fiscal 1998 to accrual surpluses
in fiscal 1999 and 2000. Revenue has steadily increased each year while Net Cost of U.S. Government Operations
experienced a decrease in fiscal 1999. The largest increase in revenue for fiscal 2000 was for individual income tax
and tax withholdings (an increase of $179.2 billion or 12.3 percent). The decrease in net cost for fiscal 1999 was
due primarily to a change in the interest rate assumptions for the veterans compensation and burial benefits payable
and its effect on net cost was a decrease of $204.8 billion. In fiscal 2000, there were further changes in the actuarial
and interest rate assumptions resulting in an increase in net cost and accrued liability for veterans benefits and
services of $62.5 billion.
Page 8
The excess of revenue over net cost figure (accrual basis) contained in these financial statements for fiscal
2000 is $46.0 billion. In fiscal 2000, there was a unified budget surplus (primarily on the cash basis) of $236.9
billion. The primary components of the difference that have been identified are increases in the liability for veteran
compensation and burial benefits, $62.5 billion; increases in the liability for civilian employee benefits, $55.3
billion; increases in the liability for military employee benefits, $39.5 billion; principal payments of pre-credit
reform loans, $24.1 billion; increases in environmental liabilities, $19.6 billion; and decreases in capitalized fixed
assets, $31.6 billion. For more information on the detailed reconciliation, see the Reconciliation of the Excess of
Revenue Over Net Cost to the Unified Budget Surplus in the Supplemental Information section.
Page 9
Revenue
Government revenue comes from two sources: nonexchange transactions and exchange transactions.
Nonexchange revenues arise primarily from exercise of the Government’s power to demand payments from the
public (e.g., taxes, duties, fines, and penalties) but also include donations. Nonexchange revenue is the U.S.
Government’s primary source of revenue and totaled $2,040.0 billion in fiscal 2000. More than 95 percent of this
total came from tax receipts, with the remainder coming from customs duties and other miscellaneous receipts.
Exchange revenues aris e when a Government entity provides goods and services to the public or to another
Government entity for a price. Another term for exchange revenue is earned revenue. During fiscal 2000, the U.S.
Government earned $160.5 billion in exchange revenue. Of these revenues, $155.7 billion is offset against the gross
cost of the related functions to arrive at the function’s net cost. The U.S. Government also earned $4.8 billion that
was not offset against the cost of any function (e.g., royalties on the Outer Continental Shelf lands).
The following chart shows the components of revenue by major source.
Expenses by Function
The net cost of U.S. Government operations was $1,998.8 billion for fiscal 2000. Net cost represents the gross
cost of operations less related earned revenues. The Statement of Net Cost reflects the cost incurred to carry out the
national priorities identified by the President and the Congress. Costs are allocated to functions and subfunctions
based on accounting standards and, in some cases, may be allocated differently than the budget. The functions and
subfunctions used to accumulate costs associated with the national priorities are identified in the President’s budget
and described in detail in the Supplemental Information section of this Financial Report. The accompanying chart
presents the percentage of the net cost of U.S. Government operations by each of the U.S. Government’s major
functions.
Now, you keep harping on the 17.9 amount.
Page 103
First column of numbers... Beginning Balance September 30, 1999
Second column of numbers... Net Change During Fiscal 2000
Third set of numbers......... Ending Balance September 30, 2000
Marketable securities .......................................... 3,233.0 --- (240.2)--- 2,992.8--- 6.631%
Non-marketable securities ................................... 2,414.3 -----215.0---- 2,629.3--- 6.628%
Non-interest bearing debt .......................................... 9.0------ 43.1-------- 52.1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Treasury securities ......................................5,656.3 -------17.9---- 5,674.2
Page 12
Treasury Securities
Now that the Federal Government has achieved budget surpluses coupled with projections of continuing
surpluses, focus has started to shift to the impact of the surpluses on the Federal debt.
While we have had 3 consecutive years of budget surpluses, it is important to understand the composition of
budget surpluses, and the relationship that these excess funds have had on reducing or changing the composition of
the Federal debt. There are two components of Federal debt: debt held by the public and intragovernmental
holdings.
Debt held by the public includes all Federal debt held by individuals, corporations, State or local governments,
Federal Reserve System, foreign governments, and other entities outside of the U.S. Government. The types of
securities that are held by the public include, but are not limited to, Treasury Bills, Treasury Notes, Treasury Bonds,
U.S. Savings Bonds, State and Local Government Series securities, Foreign Series securities, and Domestic Series
securities.
Intragovernmental holdings include Government Account Series securities held by Government trust funds,
revolving funds, and special funds; Federal Financing Bank securities held by Government trust funds; and Treasury
securities and agency securities held by Government accounts. The laws establishing Government trust funds (such
as the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds) generally require the balances to be invested in special Treasury
debt securities. Although intragovernmental holdings are used in the calculation of the Federal debt subject to the
statutory debt limit, intragovernmental transactions are eliminated in the consolidation process of preparing this
Financial Report since they are claims of one part of the Government against another part. However, they are
important to an understanding of total debt because, as the intragovernmental securities are redeemed, other sources
of funds will be identified to fund the redemptions.
Securities that represent Federal debt held by the public are primarily issued by the Treasury and include:
· Interest-bearing marketable securities (bills, notes, and bonds).
· Interest-bearing nonmarketable securities (foreign series, State and local government series, domestic series,
and savings bonds).
· Non interest-bearing debt (matured and other).
As of September 30, 2000, $5,591.6 billion of debt was subject to a statutory limit (31 United States Code
3101). That limit was $5,950 billion. The debt subject to the limit includes: Treasury Securities held by the public
and intragovernmental holdings, as well as Government guaranteed debt of Federal agencies.
Section 3111 of title 31, United States Code, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to use money received
from the sale of an obligation and other money in the general fund of the Treasury to buy, redeem, or refund, at or
before maturity, outstanding bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness, Treasury bills, or savings certificates of the
U.S. Government. During fiscal 2000, the Secretary of the Treasury authorized the redemption of $21.3 billion of
outstanding unmatured marketable Treasury securities at a premium of $5.5 billion. These early redemption
transactions are known as Treasury “buybacks.” The net change of the Federal debt securities held by the public
during fiscal 2000 includes $21.2 billion related to these buybacks.
http://fms.treas.gov/fr/00frusg/00frusg.pdf
In other words...The budget was balanced. Its at that point the Treasury has to do something with the surplus.
< Message edited by tazzygirl -- 1/10/2012 3:08:32 PM >
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RIP, my demon-child 5-16-11
Duchess of Dissent 1
Dont judge me because I sin differently than you.
If you want it sugar coated, dont ask me what i think! It would violate TOS.
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