Posted on 11/08/2015 11:14:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
From what I have read it is actually around $200 trillion if you include all the unfunded liabilities.
“We sent bankrupt slowly at first, and then quicker than anyone could imagine...”
ping for reading after football.
We all know that the debt is just like unemployment. It will be exactly what dear leader says it is. All facts including climate facts must be cleared by the White Hut. The news media is nothing more than a wing of the White Hut Tribe.
US Astronauts say the debt looks smaller from Space.
Seems to me that even though Americans have lost touch with reality it’s the politicians who are to blame...them and their vote buying schemes and throwing money at their friends and supporters.
I understand making an account of “unfunded liabilities” it is useful to see how much has been promised as a measure of how profligate our politicians are.
But the real issue here is why he thinks they are liabilities. Thomas Jefferson did not see it that way. He beleived that one generation was not liable for the debt of the previous generation. In other words the people of today are not bound by the promises of yesterday’s politicians. The people of tomorrow are not bound by the politicians of our day.
At any point now or in the future we or our successors can decide (vote) to eliminate Social Security, or eliminate various welfare schemes.
Articles like this are designed to reinforce the notion that all of these so called “compacts”, “inter generational trusts”, or “sacred contracts” which are guaranteed by sovereign debt must indeed be honored by people yet not even living.
It’s utter nonsense. These promises cannot be kept because the people who made them will be gone or no longer in power. Plus it is literally impossible to pay for them all.
I am so screwed.
Don’t forget foreign aid in the tens of billions.
Don’t conflate the two.
Debt us for money already borrowed and spent.
Liabilities, as referred to, are legislated promises of future spending which can be just as easily legislated away to eliminate the obligation.
us = is
Dang auto correct.
Actually, you personify the problem. You'd rather watch a bunch of overpaid black morons “play” than attempt to understand this country's financial predicament. I guess it just proves that even those we think are “smart,” are just as stupid as those we regard as “stupid.”
Not if you listen to Donald Trump. His sheer dealmaking awesomeness will render unnecessary any cuts to SS/Medicare. After all. he says so, and he's always right.
“Don’t forget foreign aid in the tens of billions.”
It’s really saying something when anything in the billions seems like chump change.
True but when has that ever happened. The Politicians in Washington are incapable of doing as you suggest. They know no other way.
...like to respond, but halftime is over...
You can blame the politicians all you want, but the voters are the ones who put them there. Americans want all the services and benefits the welfare state has to offer, but they are unwilling to pay the taxes to support them. We deserve the government we have.
1. Debt is more like 120 trillion.
2. We won’t go bankrupt. We can print whatever we need. Current calculations indicate we can get through for many years by slowly (about 4% annually) lowering the value of the dollar. This has already been going on for about 8 years and will continue for another 9-10 years. Doesn’t mean we won’t suffer, we will. we’ll just suffer less than the alternative ways out, hopefully.
3. As always, preparation and taking action is the key.
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