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I have been hearing this for over 40 years and I will hear it as long as I live. While what you say may be true today, there is no way to tell what will happen in the future, near or far. A large part of our liability is SS and Medicare/caid. Suppose both of these programs were put into the private sector and people funded their own, as has been proposed for SS. Suppose all education was done by private contractors who have already proved they can attain better results for less money? The Gov't will still pay but the cost per pupil will be far less and the unions will be out of it (if the private educators are smart)

My point is the nation will not go bankrupt simply because it cannot be allowed to go bankrupt. There is a saying that if you owe the bank 1 million dollars you are in trouble. But if you owe the bank 1 billion dollars the bank is in trouble.

AS things currently stand, if America goes down the financial tubes the rest of the world follows. Will this change in the future? Maybe, probably, but by the time that happens we will have had the chance to do something along the lines of what i have suggested. Will we do it? It depends on how much the morons in the Congress actually care about the country vs how much the care about getting re elected.

If I was preparing an audited financial statement for this government.....there would definately be a "going concern" note included in the report. The 'trust funds' are NOT actuarially sound, (in fact, they're non-existant) and absent substantial benefit cuts, or substantial tax increases, there is no way to make them actuarially sound. The ability of our government to continue on this path is based on a whimsical belief of the masses, trust, blind-faith, not sound economics.

The only thing separating this government from bankruptcy is the ability to print more money and to increase the debt ceiling. The ability to make future payments on entitlements is only guaranteed by future ability to tax the masses. There is nothing in the trust fund to put into the private sector to 'fund' future liabilities. How are you going to privatize the systems when the net present value of the unfunded liability (the amount that we would have to invest TODAY to make the SS and Medicare/caid systems actuarially sound) exceeds the net worth of the country? SMOKE AND MIRRORS are propping up this government.

The money previously withheld from employees and employers has been spent. It's gone. The current surplus is funding current, non-social security and medicare spending. Nothing is going into a 'lockbox.' I note with no small measure of disgust that if a private annuity salesman had done what the feds have done, he/she would be in jail for theft, fraud.

Privatization is a pipe dream because NO ONE has the cahones to stand up and tell the American people the truth: There's no money. We spent it. Sorry. You're on your own for retirement security and healthcare. That's the unvarnished truth.