after taking the float bowl off and taking a look in, there is a gasket, some blue/green stuff and this white stuff covering all of that.
and there's a fine rusty dust that has been in the first two so far.(this is concerning me a great deal)

 

the jets were all clogged, but the rest of the carb looks pretty clean

 

The brown stuff is simply gasoline that has turned to varnish. The powdery stuff is likely that varnish and it has just turned into dust. Nothing to be concerned about other than you now know that you need a total strip down and thorough cleaning of the carbs.

 

I've been looking into cleaning the tank to get the rust out, but i really can't see any. I plan on removing the petcock and rinsing the tank out and to see if I get any weird flakes to come out. The gas I put in the tank looks OK and after I poured it out, didn't have any flakes.

I'm going to continue with cleaning the carbs today and that should be done.
Should I inspect the fuel filter and the fuel pump for some deposits that might have been there a while?
I'm tempted to clean the tank out with some phosphoric acid or apple cider vinegar, but I really don't want to flash rust and cause more issues.

 

I definitely would change out your fuel filter. That's just a good preventative maintenance task. Rust in a tank is pretty evident if it's there. Something to try is to run a half a tank or so through the tank and into a buck or some other vessel that you can easily see the fuel after it's gone through. If the tank is crusty, you will see floaters in the fuel

 

righto. i've replaced the needle valves and jets on 2 carbs that i've cleaned so far. i've got a pretty small ultrasonic cleaner that i'm working really hard at the moment.
i suppose i can ask around or simply look in an automotive store to find out what i need to apply to the gaskets when i seal them in, and i need to find replacement o-rings for the fuel line tubes and the t-junction that were between all of the carbs(i'm pretty sure), there was gasoline staining all over them and some leaking out when i put gas in.

fuel filters look cheap enough, so i'll definitely get a couple of those.

 

The gasket for the bowl doesn't need anything. If they are in good shape, they will be fine by themselves. If not, replacing them is the best way. Some people have used the smallest dab of superglue to hold them in place during installation, but that should be it, if that.
As to the O-rings, if you go buy them at a parts store or online, you will be hating life. They are expensive when bought individually. I get mine from Harbor Freight. You can buy entire sets of standard and metric cheaper than you can buy them individually.