Just as they do every April, the government took part of the income tax money people paid and put it against the honestly contracted legitimate side of our preposterous national debt. This year the pay-down amounted to $52.5 billion. But don’t start praising them yet because the borrowholics will make that back in new loans in no time.

At the same time, the major entitlements like Social Security produced a surplus for the government to steal. So the dishonest, corrupt, scam side of the national debt went up $48.9 billion with the usual draw-downs that taxpayers covered for Federal Employees Retirement, Federal Employees Life & Health, Military Retirement, and so forth, chopping that figure down to a grand total of $37.1 billion.

The net result is that the national debt went down $15.4 billion. Hurray.

Since the members of the three federal entitlements mentioned above contribute little or nothing towards their own programs, what the government should be doing to reduce our overall national debt is eliminating at least $75 billion a month from these bogus trust funds. It would cost nothing, we would still be paying their benefits as we are now, but it would at least be a more honest form of extortion and the nation would begin to appear fiscally responsible. The crooks will not do this any more than they will reduce the exhorbitant payroll taxes every worker in the country pays. Tax cuts are only for the wealthy who don't need them.

Social Security by itself produced a $23.8 billion surplus through excessive April payroll taxes and, as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it, for the government “to enjoy.” Today, the Social Security distrust fund stands at 28.5 percent of the national debt. Isn’t that nice?

The good news is that while the job situation for April was about 12 million new jobs short of what it takes to keep up with the monthly population increase, many of these new jobs seem to be better paying than menial tasks. This is reflected in the month to month payroll tax surplus receipts for Social Security.

Note that the rise in April was not atypical. We are still about $7 billion behind the situation last year and dead even with 2004. If you can call this a strong economy, you’re a better man than me Charlie Brown.

The recent data in this article was taken directly from the U.S. Treasury’s “Monthly Statement” (MTS) that is currently released on the eighth working day of the month or in this case on the afternoon of Wednesday, May tenth.