wandering hillbilly

pinions of buddy don:
interst on the nashunull debt: how gross!

tuther day whenever i wuz ritin bout the nashnull debt in a lil articull bout how to git publicans to fall fer runaway borryin, i had a lil chart on the net interst everbidy is a'payin on the debt. heres one of the quayshuns i put in:

net interst equayshun

net interst on publick debt =

gross interst on publick debt - (interst earned on soshul securty trust fund + interst on miltary retirement fund + interst earnd on medicare + interest earnd on unemployment insurants + interst earnd hiway n airport n airways trust fund) - (interst on loans to publick + interst on loans to rtc and bank insurants fund)

but ye cant tell much of whuts a'goin on with this here quayshun ceptn whut the net interst is. twuz a lil bit of a struggle, but i finely found a listin of the gross interst bein paid on the nashnull debt. heres a cuple of quayshuns to show whut i mean:

accordin to the OMB, fer 2003, the gross interst to be paid on the nashnull debt is $318,141,000,000 ($318 billyuns). the net interst is $153,000,000,000 ($153 billyuns). that means the furst quayshun could be rewrit lack this:

net interst on publick debt ($153 billyuns) =	gross interst on publick debt    (ye gut to subtrack everthang below to figger the net interst paid)	$318,000 millyuns
	- interst earnd frum Civil service retirement and disability fund	($37,261 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Military Retirement fund	($10,740 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Foreign service retirement and disability trust fund	($776 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Medicare trust funds	($17,243 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Unemployment trust fund	($3,766 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Railroad retirement fund	($763 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Airport and airway trust fund	($591 millyuns)
	- interst earnd frum Other on-budget trust funds	($1,383 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest received by social security trust funds	($83,545 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest on loans to Federal Financing Bank	($2,449 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest on refunds of tax collections	($3,316 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Payment to the Resolution Funding Corporation	($1,717 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest paid to loan guarantee financing accounts	($3,614 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest received from direct loan financing accounts	($10,674 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest, DoD retiree health care fund	($196 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Interest, other special and revolving funds	($544 millyuns)
	- earnins frum All other interest	($1,192 millyuns)
	- earnins frum Private sector holdings,    National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust	($2,450 millyuns)

i figger thays a lot i dont unnerstand bout budgets, but seems lack in sted of usin the money to lower the gross interst paid, we coulda been squirrlin away lots of that interst earnd frum other investments to take care of the obligayshuns of them funds, witch ye know folks is a'gonna wonta draw on em sooner or later.

but meanwhile, this table frum tuther day looks a lot differnt ifn ye put in the gross interst we all has to pay on the nashnull debt:

costs of thangs
(outlays, includin offsettin receets in billyuns of $)

year	gross interst	defence	homeland securty	soshul securty	medicare
2003	$318	$405	$23	$471	$274
2004	$319	$452	$23	$492	$294
2005	$349	$447	$27	$513	$317
2006	$397	$439	$30	$533	$369
2007	$445	$445	$32	$559	$418
2008	$491	$464	$33	$587	$448
2009	$535	$485	$35	$618	$478

when ye put thangs thataway, they git to lookin a lot wurser. did ye notice how the gross interst to be paid gits to equal the nashnull defence spendin in 2007? tiz a lil scary when ye cunsidder how much the usa spends on nashnull defense compard to other cuntries: "According to Chris Hellman of The Center for Defense Information in Washington, using President Bush's budget increase requests for fiscal 2004, the cost of the U.S. military will be ... equivalent to the size of the next twenty-one largest militaries in the world combined." (Alterman, Eric and Green, Mark: The Book on Bush, Viking Press, 2004, pp. 186-7).

lucky fer everbidy, mr. bush has a plan to cut the deficit in half in jes 5 years.