Trade gap widens, federal deficit grows. New records for Bush

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/15/content_2092636.htm

The US trade gap widened in August to US$54 billion, the second largest on record, as oil imports reached their highest level and exports of goods slipped.

The deficit grew 6.9 per cent from US$50.5 billion in July, the Commerce Department said in Washington. The record was US$55 billion in June. The deficit with China, a political sore spot for the Bush administration, set a record.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6506402

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. budget gap expanded to $412.55 billion in fiscal 2004, marking the Bush administration's second-straight record deficit, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

Treasury also invoked stop-gap accounting measures on Thursday to avoid piercing the congressionally mandated $7.384 trillion debt ceiling, which needs to be raised for the third time in three years.

The government is just $4 billion below the legal borrowing limit as of Wednesday, according to the latest data.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

http://www.bartcopnation.com/dc/user_files/10099.jpg

[Bronco_Beerslug]

Bush administration takes emergency steps to avoid debt ceiling
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s administration weathered a pre-election mauling as it announced emergency measures to skirt a 7.38-trillion-dollar debt limit.
Treasury Secretary John Snow said he would use pension money to keep the government running.

In a letter to Senate majority leader Bill Frist, Snow said he was immediately suspending payments to a federal employees' retirement scheme, the Government Securities Investment Fund (G-Fund).
The missing money would be repaid in full later, with no net effect on the fund or retirees, he promised.

The treasury secretary said he was forced to take the emergency accounting step because Congress had not acted on his August 2 request for the government's legal debt limit to be raised.
Any move by Congress to raise the debt limit could be politically embarrassing.

Democrats pounced on the news as evidence of fiscal mismanagement by the administration, less than three weeks before Bush faces Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) in the November 2 presidential election.

"George Bush continues to make history for all the wrong reasons: He's the first president to go without creating a new job since the Great Depression and now he's run up more debt in shorter period of time than all the presidents combined in the 200 years from Washington through Reagan," said Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer.

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 15 Oct 2004 at 01:01:16 PM GMT is:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/debtc.gif

"On top of that, this is the third time he's broken his promise not to raise the debt ceiling. His fiscal mismanagement is taking its toll on America and it's time for a fresh start," he said in a statement.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi described Snow's manoeuvre as "a shameful admission" that the administration's economic policies had failed the American people.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=3&u=/afp/20041014/pl_afp/us_vote_economy_debt_041014174213

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20041015/budget_deficit2004_graphic.gif

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

No wonder real conservatives are jumping off the BushCo bandwagon.