What The Politicians Don’t Want You To Know About The National Debt

http://www.epinions.com/content_3514867844 ^ | 09-19-03 | Matthew Nehrling

[akbaines]

Even though the governement may owe the populous, where do you think the government gets it's money?

[LaraCroft]

Doesn't hold water. If the government owes US money, from the deficit, then where do they get the money to pay us? From us. With interest. So I'd say, from a laymans point of view that this article is stupid.

[TomasUSMC]

Great, Right On. Remember the Greatest Generation did what they did: Beat the depression of the 30's, Beat the Nazi's and the Japs in the 40's, Beat Back the Chinese in Korea in the 50's, Beat Jim Crow and put 12 men on the Moon in the 60 while fighting communism from Cuba to Vietnam - they did this without recieving one dollar from Medicare. Ever since we got Medicare we have gone done hill. What has my generation done? Well, of the 10 richest Americans under 40, only 1 produces anything - Mr. Dell. 2 others invented ebay, 2 invented google, 2 invented yahoo, one started amazon.com, one is an advertiser and one is into hedge funds!
So my generation will be known for amazon, ebay, google, and yahoo. ...yes Get rid of Medicare, please.

[.cnI redruM]

I wonder how Americans survived and reproduced for 140 years without billion dollar entitlement programs.

[IGNATIUS]

The Greatest Generation indeed accomplished many admirable things with less help from government.But our country was then the world's biggest creditor,we had little nat'l debt,we built and exported things,our foreign trade was relatively balanced,currency backed by silver, traditions rooted in faith family and the soil,etc etc.We've come a long way.

[Ditto]

Yep.

[jd777]

oh, please! I hope you're joking. There is no massive social security trust fund. It has been dumped in with all the other government's current liabilties. There is separation there. The money we pay in goes to the people who are collecting now. It is not invested. The system is looking at bankruptcy down the road when the baby boomers start collecting social security and less people are paying into the system. It's a revolving door. Money goes in and right out. If you think your account is sitting there with all these t-bond's collecting interest, you're mistaken.

[Ditto]

oh, please! I hope you're joking. There is no massive social security trust fund. It has been dumped in with all the other government's current liabilties.

In the form of Treasury notes. The money currently, and in the past, collected by SS taxes is in excess of the amount paid out. It will remain that way for about another 10 years at current tax rates. It is a pay as you go system but that does not change the fact that the government has converted the surplus SS payments into debt by spending the excess and masking the true size of the yearly deficit. It holds it's own securities in return. Those securities are not interest free --- they do accure interest which is in reality more debt to the taxpayer. It is really moving money from one pocket to another with a transfer fee.