Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million

Each U.S. taxpayer now has a federal-debt liability of $1.1 million, and rising.

Remember that when President Obama boasts that the federal deficit—the shortfall between annual revenues and spending—is declining. Of course, the primary reason for the decline is the sequester, which was his idea but now adamantly opposes.

The public tends to focus on the total national debt, which just passed the $17 trillion mark—up from $10.6 trillion when President Obama took office. But that figure pales in comparison to the federal government’s long term unfunded liabilities—money the government is obligated to pay over and above the revenues it is estimated to receive.

According to the U.S. Debt Clock, total long term unfunded liabilities are at $126 trillion, a $1.1 million liability for each U.S. taxpayer.

The main driver of that astronomical number is two of our major entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare.

The Debt Clock says Social Security is looking at $16.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities, while Medicare faces $87.6 trillion. And Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, which passed in 2003, adds another $22 trillion.

The Debt Clock’s Medicare unfunded liability is twice the current government projection—$43 trillion—because Democrats used Obamacare to try and deceive the public. Prior to passage the government’s estimate was similar to the Debt Clock’s.

That difference is because Obamacare requires the Medicare trustees, who annually report on the program’s financial condition, to assume that Medicare will significantly cut reimbursements to doctors and hospitals in the future.

- See more at: Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million | Rare

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zimmer said:

Socialism at Work for the People.
Pravda... Da?





You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself working less than 30 hours a week
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a tiny fuel efficient automobile
You may find yourself eating inedible food from my beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, well, how do I get on healthcare.gov?

Letting the debt go high, underwater till we drown
Kiss the U.S. goodbye, can't nobody slow me down
On whom will you depend, after the money's gone?
Once you worked full-time, but you're only part-time now

You may ask yourself, how do I work this website?
You may ask yourself, where is that 25 hundred dollar savings?
You may tell yourself, this is not affordable health care
But you should say to yourself, at least I still have this shotgun shack

Letting the debt go high, underwater till we drown
Kiss the U.S. goodbye, can't nobody slow me down
On whom will you depend, after the money's gone?
Once you worked full-time, but you're only part-time now

This website will never work, this website will never work,
This website will never work, this website will never work

Letting the debt go high, underwater till we drown
Kiss the U.S. goodbye, can't nobody slow me down
On whom will you depend, after the money's gone?
Once you worked full-time, but you're only part-time now

Letting the debt go high
This website will never work

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joG said:

Actually, I think it is less. But I do think it is very important to keep at our politicians about the debt and National overspend. We cannot continue along this trajectory and must curtail spending. We will even have to increase taxes for a short period. There is no other way.

Here is my favorite link to the Debt Clock: U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

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nazia said:

It all shearing is amazing. Very well done for the above informative shearing.

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Kobie said:

In the long term, of course we will have to curtail some spending and increase taxes. However, the best way to combat the national debt is GROWTH. Every burst in economic growth in this country has come through technological breakthroughs. The Internet. The assembly line. Nuclear power. The automobile. The steam engine. Hell, the cotton gin.

Become a technological leader again, we solve the debt.

And we're not that far off from that. The U.S. is still a huge producer of much of the world's tech. Most of the production of said tech gets outsourced to places like China, so we're losing on that revenue stream, but the U.S. still produces more viable technology than any country on the planet.

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joG said:

No question, that is true. We need growth. It is the best way out of debt. Problem is, that you have to have policies that allow growth. ACA and a number of other policies going on right now do not make significant growth probable.

And again your implicit assumption is true. The reduction of the deficit will entail policies that will reduce growth in the short term. And here is the crux. The deficit is such, that National Debt is growing at an unsustainable pace in the shorter mid term.

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Kobie said:

Time will tell with ACA ... I do not see it being the harbinger of doom that some do.

I realize deficit and debt reduction are different things, but they can be achieved with growth through technology. We need massive infusion of cash into research and development for information tech, medical tech (especially drug research), and nanotech. Play to our strengths. We're not a manufacturing giant anymore, and we never will be.

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joG said:

Actually I am not against general health insurance. ACA is too complicated and makes it too difficult to understand, what its effects will be for a company or individual. This increases risk in the perception of decision makers and reduces the propensity to spend on investment or even consumption. this is purely short term, which is quite different from longer term impact, that can be the opposite.

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joG said:

And again yes. We can achieve growth through technology and seem to be doing so. This does not mean that the debt can increased at this pace for much longer. It is no longer future generations that will be affected by our debt. That chicken is about to enter our roost.

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Kobie said:

I know this isn't a popular opinion, but our debt isn't unmanageable. Yet. Our debt is still the most valuable financial commodity in the world. No matter how ridiculous this clown shoes nonsense goes on in Washington, people are still buying our debt. Because they know we can eventually pay it back. Hell, we owe most of our debt to ourselves. Our currency is extremely valuable, especially in foreign states. The chickens aren't even close to coming to roost yet ... UNLESS we default, which is why debt ceiling chicken is a terrible game to play.

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joG said:

True. And they will go on buying it till they don't.

When to expect that is impossible to say. Only days before Lehman went down people were buying their debt. Then you couldn't give it away.

The US is still not at that point. But an awful lot of the debt is landing at the fed. That implies not a run but a devaluation and following that inflation. But again it is too early to say. What must be kept in mind is the time dimension. It will take time to work the debt off and the process cannot be controlled once a collapse starts. Do we really want to take that punt?

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Kobie said:

Well true, because a. what Lehman was selling was junk; how nobody went to jail over that is beyond me, and b. Lehman can't print its own money. The U.S. goverment's situation is far different than Lehman Bros. was.

As long as we keep paying our bills, there's no reason for the time dimension to enter into it, barring an unforeseen crash which, as we know, could happen at any moment, but if that happens no amount of debt reduction will save us. We're YEARS from reducing the debt. It's a punt we have no choice but to take, since hamhandedly slashing spending like Leatherface is just going to slow growth.

I hate to say it, but the only way out of this mess is to spend until we grow ourselves out of it, then worry about the debt.

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joG said:

After Greenspan's dot.com bubble we spent our way out and were overtaken by the impact of that spending, when the Clinton bubble bust after which we spent our way out less fruitfully. Spending after reaching a certain level of debt begins to become less and less effective. That is why you have to save between bouts. In essence we have built a new bubble in government debt. So, by the way, have the Europeans.

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Kobie said:

In the long term, of course we will have to curtail some spending and increase taxes. However, the best way to combat the national debt is GROWTH. Every burst in economic growth in this country has come through technological breakthroughs. The Internet. The assembly line. Nuclear power. The automobile. The steam engine. Hell, the cotton gin.

Become a technological leader again, we solve the debt.

And we're not that far off from that. The U.S. is still a huge producer of much of the world's tech. Most of the production of said tech gets outsourced to places like China, so we're losing on that revenue stream, but the U.S. still produces more viable technology than any country on the planet.

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WCH said:

But will that provide the *jobs* necessary for this growth? Or will they just get shipped off to foreign countries?

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