Do those figures include everything, or is a couple hundred billion hidden in off-budget spending?
This is what is really obnoxious about the Fringer Political activists. The run around screaming their tin foil hat nonsense so loudly people automatically assume "Oh the Government is lying".
This is the real number. Same way when it was $520 billion it was the real number. ANY statistic can be manipulated one way or another. The 3rd Party types spin the numbers one way to inflate the number for their Chicken Little Hysteria. The way to measure it is the same standard applied year after year. NOT using ONE way of adding the numbers this year because you want the number to be smaller and add it a different way the next year so you can use it as a campaign slogan the way the 3rd Party Finger Talking Heads always do. Same standard, constantly applied. $250 bill. Thank you President Reagan for showing us the way.