Originally Posted by Robbie

I read that their has not been a "real" Federal Budget (a complete budget as required by law) since 1997.

It's always "CR" after "CR"

Apparently that is now business as usual.

17 Trillion dollar deficit, and still spending billions every day.

Unreal. And of course Washington D.C. cooks the books to make it look less bad.

Check this out:
"Unfunded obligations excluded
The U.S. government is obligated under current law to mandatory payments for programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) projects that payouts for these programs will significantly exceed tax revenues over the next 75 years. The Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) payouts already exceed program tax revenues, and social security payouts exceeded payroll taxes in fiscal 2010. These deficits require funding from other tax sources or borrowing. The present value of these deficits or unfunded obligations is an estimated $45.8 trillion. This is the amount that would have had to be set aside in 2009 in order to pay for the unfunded obligations which, under current law, will have to be raised by the government in the future. Approximately $7.7 trillion relates to Social Security, while $38.2 trillion relates to Medicare and Medicaid. In other words, health care programs will require nearly five times more funding than Social Security. Adding this to the national debt and other federal obligations would bring total obligations to nearly $62 trillion. However, these unfunded obligations are not counted in the national debt."