The CBO has published a simple chart concerning the Budget. We reproduce it here in a slightly different form.
Now we may ask, what is wrong with this chart? The mandate as stated by the CBO is:
Under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which created CBO, the agency’s primary duty is to provide budget-related information to the Committees on the Budget of the House and Senate. CBO is also required to assist the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, the House Committee on Ways and Means, the Senate Committee on Finance, other committees, and Members of Congress. The law further requires CBO to prepare several budget projections each year, produce cost estimates of legislation ordered reported by Congressional committees, and publish studies of budgetary issues.
But again is the data above the "truth"?
My answer is, well a little, but not all.
You see, the two elements of Social Security and Medicare, 39% of the "Budget" were funded by payments by the participants. They should be extra the Budget, which is funded by the taxpayers. This is game playing in that there are on book and off book elements. Again just to remind everyone Congress has purloined the now $5 trillion from Medicare and Social Security and spent it!
What I find amusing is that the good Harvard Professor Mankiw has apparently portrayed this for what reasons I cannot fathom but without stating the obvious, it is an amalgam of apples and gorillas, two disparate phyla.
Now we may ask, what is wrong with this chart? The mandate as stated by the CBO is:
Under the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which created CBO, the agency’s primary duty is to provide budget-related information to the Committees on the Budget of the House and Senate. CBO is also required to assist the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, the House Committee on Ways and Means, the Senate Committee on Finance, other committees, and Members of Congress. The law further requires CBO to prepare several budget projections each year, produce cost estimates of legislation ordered reported by Congressional committees, and publish studies of budgetary issues.
But again is the data above the "truth"?
My answer is, well a little, but not all.
You see, the two elements of Social Security and Medicare, 39% of the "Budget" were funded by payments by the participants. They should be extra the Budget, which is funded by the taxpayers. This is game playing in that there are on book and off book elements. Again just to remind everyone Congress has purloined the now $5 trillion from Medicare and Social Security and spent it!
What I find amusing is that the good Harvard Professor Mankiw has apparently portrayed this for what reasons I cannot fathom but without stating the obvious, it is an amalgam of apples and gorillas, two disparate phyla.
Posts
