This report is about government finances. I've discovered that a third of the federal government will be paid for with borrowed money for the foreseeable future. Is this fiscally sound? Borrowed money? Is the government using a super duper credit card? Since Bush took office, the national debt has soared. It will be more than tripled by fiscal 2013 - maybe $14 trillion. Trillion? I just got through understanding "billion." Okay then, as a share of the economy, the government's debt is expected to rise from 45 per cent in 2001 to 79 per cent by 2013 - a jump of 77 per cent. This is a big debt compared with the economy. But, come to think of it, it makes Bush's $87 billion, for his war repair, sound a lot more reasonable, doesn't it?

In the upcoming fiscal year, the $661 billion regular budget deficit will be maybe six per cent of the economy. Annual deficits are going to exceed six per cent of the economy from fiscal 2009 on. Still Bush claims his deficits are "moderate by any historical measure." Where did he study economics? Was it Harvard? Was it Yale? Lastly the Federal Reserve's low interest rates have kept federal interest outlays in check for the moment, but after fiscal 2005, interest payments are expected to rise rapidly. Perhaps by 2009 the government is likely to be spending more for interest on the debt than on all domestic programs - education, environment, law enforcement, science projects, transportation, veterans, etc.

Now to the economics of the war on Iraq: Who pays whom for what and so forth? The industry needed to repair the damage to Iraq is being monopolized by one company, an American corporation called Halliburton. The US taxpayers will be paying Halliburton (reported to be charging exorbitantly for its work). The US taxpayers will be paying this American company exorbitant amounts, so, in theory, does this mean we are paying ourselves exorbitantly? Is this "trickled down" economics? (Some say, "trickle up!") Halliburton will be hugely rich from its business in Iraq and the rest of us, through "trickle down, or up" will just naturally do well or so they say.

However, we will be forced to deal with "the company store," so to speak. We will have to continue paying that unassailable "store" (the store in which paramount economic power has been accumulated) and we will never be allowed to pay down our accounts. We will always be in debt and so will our children and so will their children too. All we know for sure is that with our current system of "End Run Enron Economics" special interests are in the driver's seat and economic power is being shifted into fewer and fewer hands! And these hands won't benefit any of us who are not owners and operators of the "company store." So don't be left out. Better send Bush a donation of at least several hundred thousand for his reelection. A few million would be better.

Oblivia Offenfaulty reporting for Grandma Minutia