Posted on 02/24/2020 6:19:07 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
WASHINGTON—America’s current national debt stands at roughly $23.3 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s “Debt to the Penny” website, which is so precise that visitors can pick a specific date in the recent past—say Jan. 1, 2000—and get the exact amount on that day: $5,776,091,314,225.33.
While based on those figures, the national debt has more than quadrupled in that time frame, it’s actually much worse than that, according to calculations by Bill Bergman.
“This calculation highlights some of the pitfalls and perils of false precision,” Bergman, the director of research for the Chicago-based nonprofit advocacy group Truth in Accounting (TIA), told The Epoch Times.
“The U.S. government does not include the unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare under current law. These massive negative positions are so high that Truth in Accounting believes the ‘true’ national debt runs north of $100 trillion.”
$122,309,089,510,200, to be exact.
Because future obligations aren’t included in current-year accounting, a government budget can technically be “balanced” when, in truth, it’s anything but.
That’s because those unfunded obligations under Social Security and Medicare are benefits the government has promised to pay future beneficiaries, but for which there currently exists no dedicated funding.
The yawning gap between the Treasury Department’s calculation of the national debt and TIA’s reflects how the federal government keeps its books.
“How does the U.S. government justify not counting these obligations as debts? The reasoning has been that the government controls the law, and can change it at any time,” Bergman said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
The United States is bankrupt. All it takes is an increase in interest rates to have it default.
This is definitely the case at the state level (especially New Jersey) but states can’t print their own currency. The Federal government of course can monetize those unfunded debts. The recipients will be unhappy with that solution but...
The CoronaVirus may fix the unfunded mandate for SS and Medicare by killing off us oldfolk
Even that is wrong.
Unfunded liabilities are well over 200 trillion, and probably 300 trillion
Unfunded liabilities.
The only use that "clutching the pearls" over the deficit has is - electing Democrats.
Because there is a difference between a deficit and a projected deficit.
Well, on the plus side
CoronaVirus may dramatically improve the Social Security and Medicare deficit issues
Killing off the elderly, rapidly
oh yes, I’m one of those oldsters
True. And then they’ll out deficit spend the Republican they replaced three to one.
““The U.S. government does not include the unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare under current law.”
Why would they?
It’s never going to be paid. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just plain deluded.
Hadn’t looked at it in a while and it’s interesting in that debt per citizen used to be in motion when barack was prez and family savings was four digits.
Still friggin mind boggling.
Getting off the gold standard and the creation of the FedRes was a helluva money man trick over 100 years ago. It created the Rothchild/Rockefellers and Central Banks.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the S/S were handled responsibly and the “public servants” weren’t using the treasury for vote buying/self-enrichment schemes.
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