Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(October 2005)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Late breaking news:
Dateline: Thursday the 15th of September 2005. New Orleans.
 President Bush spoke to the nation from the devastation of what was once the
city of New Orleans, and announced in a speech which was full of platitudes,
and "we will overcome" messages, that the Federal Government of the United States
would be responsible for funding the re-building of the Gulf Shore cities and
he confirmed that a rough order of magnitude estimate, that I made on or around
Sunday the 11th of September 2005 of a cost in excess of $200B dollars was a
correct assumption.
The speech was full of promises but failed to answer
the major question as to where the money was going to come
from, as this is probably money that most people of this
country can ill afford to be burdened with at this time.
Dateline: Friday the 16 th of September 2005.
Washington D.C.
President Bush at a news conference with President Putin
of Russia was again asked the question, from a member of
the gathered press reporters, as to where the $200B dollars
for the re-building of the Gulf Shore cities was going
to come from. He waffled on and on and finally repeated
the old theme that it would not come from general tax increases,
but one more time he sidestepped the issue as to where
the money would come from and never did give a definitive
answer.
 I guess that he really doesn’t know were the money is going to come from.
The question that I have is, considering the vulnerability of these cities
to future high intensity storms should they be rebuilt?
Whilst
we are on the subject of the American economy, and the affordability of spending
another $200B dollars on the rebuilding of the Gulf State cities, I would
like to give you an updated report on the current financial
position of the United States Budget deficit/surplus
and the outstanding United States "Public" debt
situation.
By the way please do not read into this something that
is not true - as by political persuasion I am not a Democrat.
1) The United States Budget deficit/surplus situation:
When
President Clinton came into power he inherited from his
predecessor President George Bush Senior a deficit balance
of $290B dollars and when President Clinton left office
eight years later he passed on to his successor George
W. Bush a surplus balance of $233B dollars. (A net gain
of $528B dollars).
In the last six years that President George W. Bush has been in power we have
seen the budget surplus eroded away and plummeting to a $480B dollar deficit.
(A net loss for fiscal 2004 of $713B dollars),
2) The United States “Public” debt
situation:
 As of the 12th of September 2005 the National Public Debt reached a figure
of $7.57T dollars, (give or take a few billion dollars),
and has been averaging a daily increase of $1.66B dollars per day since September
of 2004.
So can the people of America still retain their built
in "eternal
optimism" that America will always pull through no
matter what challenges befall them?
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