No you can't

14 May 2009 By Martin Hutchinson

The Obama administration wants to keep some bailout spending off its books more than $500bn for the IMF, part of the Tarp cost, and the Fannie and Freddie bailouts. This could improve budget deficit optics, but it won t change the borrowing need and that s the real test.

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The Obama administration is seeking $108bn in funding for the International Monetary Fund. Peter Orszag, the budget director, argues that the entire transaction should be treated as an exchange of assets with the IMF, since the US receives special drawing rights in exchange. Accordingly, the amount has not been included in the Office for Management and Budget spending and deficit projections released on May 11. The OMB requested on May 13 that the IMF funding be included in the supplemental budget being considered by Congress.

Current budget estimates for the cost in fiscal year 2009 of the $700bn Troubled Asset Relief Programme are $356bn from the Congressional Budget Office and $260bn from the Office of Management and Budget.

The US Treasury has committed $200bn to each of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, of which about $85bn has so far been disbursed. These amounts are not included in the administration's budget.

The federal government ran a deficit in April, the month of maximum tax collections, for the first time since 1983.

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