Tom Veatch wrote:
On Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:58:51 -0700, Doug Winterburn
wrote:

currently approaching
$5 trillion and climbing fast.

Over $10 trillion according to
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Tom Veatch
Wichita, KS
USA

I was referring to that portion of the debt which is known as "intra
governmental debt" or "non-negotiable debt" which is the non public part
which is primarily a result of the government spending the excess
contributions of the 150 or so "trust funds" and placing IOUs in the
funds. The other $5+ trillion of the debt is known as "public debt"
which consists of T-bills, savings bonds, and other stuff that the feds
sell on the open markets to finance our current expenditures. This is
the part that we owe to China and other public purchasers including
ourselves.

The intra governmental debt is a result of spending the cash from the
trust funds and showing it as income but not showing the IOUs it bought
as an expenditure in the current budget year. This is how we claimed to
have have budget surpluses in the late '90s even though the debt has
increased every year since 1960.

There is no "good" or "bad" debt, it is all debt when it comes to paying up.