And every penny of that has been spent and no longer exists. Don't kid yourself: Your parents' SS/Medicare came straight out of your pocket. Any SS/Medicare you may receive is coming straight out of some younger peoples' pockets.
Half of Federal Outlays, roughly, are a Ponzi Scheme sustained by Fedzilla's ability to create "money" from nothing. Any attempt to get government spending under control that doesn't FIRST get government out of the Ponzi Scheme business, is just blather and drivel. Hot air. Meaningless babble.
It’s easy to explain to people how total wages are approx 12 trillion per year, national debt nearly 3x this much, interest rates over 5%, they can see that Uncle Sam is needing to get 15% of all wages to pay Interest on the Debt, and they know that they’ll be paying for it somehow.