From WolrdNetDaily:
The real 2007 federal budget deficit was $4 trillion, not a previously reported $163 billion, an economist contends, based on data from the Treasury Department's annual financial report.
"The federal government's fiscal woes continue to careen wildly out of control," said economist John Williams, who publishes the Internet website Shadow Government Statistics.
Williams explained that the difference between the official budget deficit and his number is that the official figure is calculated on a cash basis, where all tax receipts, including Social Security receipts, are used to pay government liabilities as they occur.
Williams bases his figure on the Treasury Department's "2007 Financial Report of the United States Government," released Dec. 15.
The calculations in the annual report are calculated on a GAAP basis – Generally Accepted Accounting Practices – that includes year-for-year changes in the net present value of unfunded liabilities in social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Under cash reporting, the government makes no provision for future Social Security and Medicare benefits in the year in which those benefits accrue.
