With these criteria in mind, we will turn attention to the current federal budget, which has been in deficit status since 2002, and seems destined to remain so for the next several years. The FY2006 proposed budget includes a $390 billion deficit, not including potential expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan or any social security reform measures undertaken -- a seemingly huge discrepancy between government revenue and spending (Cashell 2005, p. 1). President Bush has vowed to reduce deficit spending by half in the next five years -- and appears to be holding true to that promise, as the 2006 deficit is smaller than the $427 billion deficit in the FY2005 budget. But again, these numbers are not truly a reflection of the budgetary state of the government when they do not reflect the deficit as a ratio to revenue or as a percentage of total spending.

The final section of...
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