>The table here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt from the Congressional Budget Office paints rather a different picture. Is it wrong ?
>
>Let me give you a couple examples of government estimates as we consider the estimated $1 trillion health care bill:
>
>• Boston's "Big Dig" Highway Project
>Estimated preliminary price tag (in 1985): $2.5 billion
>Actual cost with interest: $22 billion
>
>• Medicare Part A
>Estimated price tag for 1990: $9 billion
>Actual cost in 1990: $67 billion
>
>• Medicaid's Special Hospital Subsidy
>Estimated cost for 1992: less than $1 billion
>Actual cost in 1992: $17 billion
>
>Is there some good reason that I should have any faith in government estimates?

But is there a good reason to have faith in anyone else's ?
IAC, this is all thread drift. My original comment was specifically that the budget deficit figures you listed by presendential term disproved rather than proved your assertion that republicans were better at managing the budget. As elsewhere, I've no particular view on whether these are useful statistics - just that your use of them seemed to shoot yourself in the foot :-}