The very last thing we want to do at 5 o'clock on a Friday is start reading freakin' budget reports from the Treasury, but this seems possibly horrifying enough to briefly consider before we turn to "Weekend Wilma," which is a just-now made-up code name for being drunk until Monday.

Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee claims the real deficit is $760 billion, not $318.5 billion as claimed by the White House. And the national debt is actually $49 trillion, not $8.3 trillion.

More numbers-based fear-mongering, after the jump.

Last year, the U.S. paid $375 billion in interest alone ... or, Washington paid $100 billion more in interest than last year's $275 billion increase in federal revenue.

Scary numbers, but why even mention them? Because Cooper's a Dem and he suspects the GOP will "reveal" the true numbers once the Dems win back the House and Senate ... so that the Democrats will get stuck with the blame for the crazy debt and spending that have piled up since 2001.

The question for non-economists is, But what country is going to try to collect that debt when we can just blow up anybody we want for any reason at any time?

The answer, of course, is that Cinco de Mayo wasn't originally a day when white people drank a lot of tequila. It actually commemorates the humiliating defeat of the French by the Mexicans ... all because Mexico defaulted on its debt to France, so France decided to seize Mexico.

Bush is Hiding the True National Debt. It's Worse than You've Heard. Much Worse. [BuzzFlash]

2005 Financial Report of the United States Government [U.S. Treasury]