Hyperbole

I had a recent crack at journalists over accuracy. Today's topic could go under that heading or merely "hyperbole".

Piers Ackerman writing in the Tele has stated;

No matter how much Prime Minister Kevin Rudd furrows his brow and adopts a serious mien, memories of Labor governments past will bedevil his efforts to sink the nation under a red tide of debt that will take generations to clear.

Generations? Really? A generation is thought of usually being 25 years or so. Generations is therefore 50 years or more!

Later he points out that the debt position Howard inherited from the ALP was $96B. An amount that was cleared over the decade, and more. It was in the end cleared even without the proceeds of the Telstra sale.

What part of keeping the budget in balance "over the course of the economic cycle" that was the mantra of Howard/Costello before being adopted by the ALP don't commentators and conservatives get?