On the campaign trail, I get a lot of quizzical looks when I tell people that the Federal government should use the same accounting standards that it requires of business.

Last August, USA TODAY detailed the difference between the keeping books for business and the Federal government. Instead of a $318 billion budget deficit in 2005, under the government’s accounting rules, the Federal budget deficit as measured by business accounting rules was actually $3.5 trillion for that single year.

In other words, the disastrous implications of a $318 billion gap between what the government takes from you in taxes and what it spends was actually ten times worse.

Now that we’re in election season, President Bush announced that the deficit is only $250 billion. The Senate Budget Committee’s ranking Democrat, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, reminded Americans that Bush is tapping Social Security revenue to help cover the deficit through off-budget borrowing. Accounting for that, Conrad said, would have added $550 billion to the deficit last fiscal year.

by David Schlosser

Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc.