Is this "new math" or something?

Considering how much we hang on economic indicators, it is pretty shocking how imprecise they seem.

The Federal government produces numbers like the unemployment rate with computer systems that predate the Internet. Economists have complained about how inflexible the system is but no administration has been willing to fund improvements.

Over the past few years I began to believe that a crappy system suits presidents just fine. They can release incorrect numbers on time and then quietly revise them a month or two later. Being accurate is not nearly as important as being on message.

Which is pretty much what we saw Friday with the GDP numbers. Originally stated by the Bush administration as a 3.8% drop but now we hear the number is actually 6.2%. A nice hefty mistake but par for the course. For years, the Bush administration revised their own numbers downward with metamucil regularity.

And then we have this wonderful graph. More importantly we have the new President saying that he wants to include all government spending in the budget. What?

I dont know the details (and they probably wont change this graph much) but it appears that the Bush Administration was able to pull a little legal trick and hide the Iraq war. By funding the war as a "supplemental" budget and not "the" budget, it does not show up as part of the Federal budget.

I still cant get my common-sense head around how that could happen. How dumb are we?

Government spending should be government spending now matter how many bills or earmarks there are but I guess I dont know much about Washington politics. If nothing else, you have to give the Bush administration credit for being masters of our political system and using every trick in the book.

I very clearly remember Bush telling us the war would be free (paid for by Iraqi oil) and I remember when they fired the guy who said it would cost $100B. I cannot wait to see the new numbers which nonpartisan estimates put at $1T to $2T when you include healthcare. Maybe that is why the Bush administration kept VA funding so disgracefully low...

Anyway, like our crumbling road infrastructure, it is time we invested some money in our economic infrastructure. New computers for measuring economic measures and the power of websites to shine some light on Federal spending. You would think those would have been goals of "small government" Republicans but maybe that Obama guy will actually do something about it.