David Walker  head of the Government Accounting Office  is adamant that our Deficit and Debt are on a unsustainable catastrophic level

Debt growth is from unpaid War spending and rising Entitlement Health Care Costs

The following chart shows sources Federal Revenue

Deficit Plotted with Supplemental Deficit quantities added to the chart

Total Debt and Main Components

The true deficit is clouded by the fact that Emergency Appropriations are not reported as part of the deficit even though they are added to the debt. Also it is further confused as they reduce the debt from the Social Security Reserve. However total debt covers all the borrowing that has tot be paid back at some time. Total Debt is depicted below with its two major components.

Base on the reported Budget Deficits Bill Clinton was the only recent president who drove annual deficits down.

George Bush II tax cuts and war spending are on a unsustainable path

 True deficit is determined by calculating the annual increase in debt.

Using this technique,  there is no time  that we had a surplus as depicted in the Presidential Deficit plots.

Why this disparity - Because Interest received on the Trust Funds like Social Security

are subtracted from the total deficit