The Actual Government Deficit Was $1 Trillion Last Year

``the GAO's more accurate accounting shows a total government cost of $3.8 trillion on total revenue of $2.8 trillion. In other words-- the administration wasn't exactly honest with the American people-- the deficit was more like $1 trillion, not $680 billion.'' -- As our regular readers know this is actually the case every year (nowadays), because the "deficit" you always hear talked about is just the budget deficit, which covers only appropriated items. All other spending also goes into the national debt, and there is quite a bit of such spending -- enough that you can generally double the "budget deficit" to get the total amount the national debt will go up in a year.