Subject: Your letter of June 11, 1997
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 09:53:00 -0500
From: Ed Henry <ctzcrank@ix.netcom.com>
To: dick@durbin.senate.gov
Dear Senator Durbin and Staff;
I want to express my gratitude for your honest and timely response to my question about the national debt and deficit. It reinforces my belief that you were the right man to replace Senator Simon, a man I always supported and believed to be working very hard for his constituents and the people in general. It's nice to know that you seem to be following in his footsteps.
You should also know that I asked the same question of every member of the House Budget Committee, as well as every member of the Senate Budget and Finance Committees and many other members of Congress---everyone who had either an e-mail or fax address.
So far, you and Representative John M. Spratt, Jr. of the House Budget Committee are the only ones who have answered with something other than a "dear friend" form letter putting me off. And your answer was much more thorough and informative than Rep. Spratt's.
I do, however, have a few further questions and submit them herewith hoping you and your staff can find the time to answer or point me in the right direction.
1. I have searched the OMB's offerings on the Internet and have not been able to find either of the reports from which you extracted pages. Could you please tell me the formal name of these reports so that I might try to order them from the government printing office?
2. When I figured the "actual" deficit for 1996, I used the Bureau of Public Debt Accounting (Treasury Dept.) web page at http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm and figured, by subtracting yearly totals, that the deficit for 1996 was approximately $250 billion. Your figures show $260 billion or a difference of $10 billion. Is there a logical explanation for this?
3. I have downloaded the Treasury's (PDF) "Report to the Citizens" for 1996 receipts and expenditures and find $241 billion paid in interest on the national debt out of total receipts for 1996, including trust fund excesses (which were $132 billion). However, their web page for total interest on the national debt paid during the same 1996 time period, at http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdint.htm shows a total of almost $344 billion paid in interest. Can you tell me where this additional $103 billion came from? How was it borrowed? Was it from the Federal Reserve picking up securities not selling at regular auction? Was it due to almost daily payments of the "discount" rate of maturing securities? Or was it simply from additional securities offered for sale?
I sincerely hope that these questions are not too much of an imposition on you and your staff, and anxiously await your response.
Ed Henry
1037 Franklin Place
Rockford, IL 61103