I'm fucking confused. Trying to do an apples to apples comparison of 2011 vs say 2008, is almost nearly impossible.

So Obama wants a FY 2011 budget of roughly $3.8T. That translates to roughly 25% of the projected 2011 GDP. Revenues are projected @ around $2.6T, or about 17% of GDP (GDP is higher in 2011 vs 2008), which gives us appoximately a $1.2T deficit.

In 2008, the budget was roughly $2.9T. That translated to approximately 20% of GDP. Revenues were projected @ about $2.6T, or about 18% of GDP, which gave us a $300B deficit.

What programs went through the spending roof? And how do you say with a straight face that we are cutting $100B a year from the budget when you just increased it by a trillion a year.

How about we have a budget and revenue not to exceed 20%. I really don't care how the Federal govt spends it, but they only get 20% of GDP.

I don't care if the gov't is taking 80% of the GDP, so long as the inbox matches the outbox, lol. Given that we're 13 trillion in the hole, it's be wiser to have more coming in than going out.

We currently don't have ANY budget. Pelosi and the 111th Congress failed to comply with their Constitutional responsibilities to enact a budget. They have been surviving on continuing resolutions for so long by just kicking the can further down the road. We'll see what happens in March when the current CR expires.

IMHO, no one knows how much in debt we are, because no one knows fully the amount of money that is being tossed around. It's going to be very interesting to see what the republicans come up with in their budget, and spending cuts, if any.

40% of one trillion, I've decided I need to stay away from big numbers.

Congress has been getting lazier and lazier when it comes to making an annual budget ever since the beginning of the Bush administration. Trust me, I follow this closely, because there's usually a hiring freeze in my office until the budget gets passed.

Change we can believe in.

Its a fake budget. The real budget is a state secret!

Use admonish or correct. The word spank on this board can have different meanings. Plus you don't want to give a certain individual the opportunity to scrounge his 10,000 picture hard drive for a picture on spanking.

it was a pretty dumb error and I deserved it.