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So, When Is A Reported Surplus Actually a Deficit?

The Government (and politicians) add the Social Security (and other trust fund) surpluses into the Federal Budget numbers when reporting a “deficit” or “surplus”. Thus, as long as the government’s deficit in a particular year can be financed by selling bonds to the Social Security Trust Fund, the government will report a “surplus”, even though total national debt has increased. This is how the Clinton administration reported budget “surpluses” in 1998-2000. In fact, the non-Social Security portion of the government was running a large deficit, but Social Security ran enough of a surplus that the government did not need to increase borrowing from the public. The U.S. government has not run a true surplus for over 50 years.