Politics: Onward from New Hampshire

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Tyrone_Slothrop
Is there any principled reason to exclude the costs of (a) Iraq, (b) Afghanistan, (c) AMT changes, (d) etc. from his budget? No. The only reason it was done was to make the deficit look smaller. If some thing is done solely to create an incorrect impression, it is fair to call it misleading. The fact that the press sometimes picks up on this does not change it. The Administration does it because the press coverage will revolve around its description, even when the reporters know better.

I suspect that there may be technical accounting reasons why this is done, but I don't know enough about accounting.