4/89Portion of U.S. government revenue in 1989 that will come from Social Security taxes: 1/4
Percentage increase in the 1989 U.S. budget deficit if Social Security funds are not counted as revenue: 35
4/90Number of years since the balanced-budget bill became law in 1985 that its deficit-reduction targets have been met: 0
6/90Projected total cost to taxpayers of the S&L bailout, expressed as a percentage of the federal deficit: 300
Rank of the corporation formed to manage the bailout, among the largest U.S. real estate concerns: 1
8/92Days it would take to exhaust Ross Perot’s fortune if it were used to pay the interest on the federal deficit: 5.7
1/96Percentage of Americans who favor placing ads on the dollar bill to help cut the deficit or lower taxes: 35
1/96Number of Western European countries whose deficit represents a higher portion of GDP than the U.S. deficit does: 14
12/96Amount of the trade surplus the U.S. had with Mexico the year NAFTA was passed: $1,700,000,000
Estimated amount of the trade deficit the U.S. has with Mexico today: $17,200,000,000
8/96Percentage change in the size of the annual U.S. budget deficit since Bill Clinton took office: -50
8/96Rank of the United States among G-7 countries whose deficit represents the smallest percentage of GDP: 1
1/97Amount by which Medicare’s outlays exceeded contributions in 1995, the first year the program had a deficit: $36,000,000
Size of the Medicare deficit in 1996: $4,200,000,000
Percentage change since then in the number of students taking LSATs adjusted for Attention Deficit Disorder: +1,510
12/05Percentage change since 1995 in the U.S. trade deficit with China, as a percentage of U.S. GDP: +202
Percentage change with all other countries: +147
5/08Current annual deficit of the International Monetary Fund: $140,000,000