The following blog makes an interesting read: http://www.optimist123.com/optimist/2007/05/a_followup_ques.html He's bang on about growth helping to lower the budget defict. However I think it's growth of another kind: excessive monetary supply.
As long as they leave out hundreds of billions of spending and money stolen from SS, you can come up with anything you like. the spending vs revenue deficit this yr is $450 billion if you added the money stolen from SS, you'd have a more realistic $600 billion deficit this yr they tell us its $260 billion go figure
The last surplus was during the tech bubble, this one during a housing bubble. It shouldnt last long.
Any accidental, coincidental, through no-fault-of-there-own type of surplus, will be spent and then some. Interesting choice of words they use: Government surplus (the government is good, look at what we have managed) Public debt (the citizens are bad, taxes way too low, it is the responsibility of citizens to eliminate debt)
That is one bizarre website, connected to the reality of some different planet. It is easy to show a deficit or surplus, if you have the ridiculous accounting rules that our government has: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070529/1a_lede29.art.htm
Is the U.S. really 400 trillion dollars in debt as USA Today claims or is it proof positive that Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are unsustainable in the long-run.
In a deflationary scenario, all debts/liabilities could be repudiated thereby allowing for a better possibility of creating the appearance of a surplus.