Taxpayer's Bill Leaps by Trillions : USA Today

Taxpayer's Bill Leaps by Trillions : USA Today

www.usatoday.com

The federal government's long-term financial obligations grew by $2.5 trillion last year, a reflection of the mushrooming cost of Medicare and Social Security benefits as more baby boomers reach retirement.
That's double the red ink of a year earlier.

Taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a USA TODAY analysis found. That's nearly $500,000 per household.

When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This absolutely mind-boggling. And once again, we're being given the "numbers game" where figures are skewed and adjusted to make things look not so disastrous. But this is an absolute nightmare that eventually will haunt EVERYONE. How can we EVER pay this off, when most of are just struggling to make ends meet as it is?

"We're running deficits in the trillions of dollars, not the hundreds of billions of dollars we're being told," says Sheila Weinberg, chief executive of the Institute for Truth in Accounting of Chicago.

The reason for the discrepancy: Accounting standards require corporations and state governments to count new financial obligations, even if the payments will be made later. The federal government doesn't follow that rule. Instead of counting lifetime benefits for programs such as Social Security, the government counts the cost of benefits for the current year.

The deteriorating condition of these programs doesn't show up in the government's bottom line, but the information is released elsewhere — in Medicare's annual report, for example. Since 2004, USA TODAY has collected the information to provide taxpayers with a financial report similar to what a corporation would give shareholders. Big new liabilities taken on in 2007:

• Medicare: $1.2 trillion.

• Social Security: $900 billion.

• Civil servant retirement: $106 billion.

• Veteran benefits: $34 billion.

www.usatoday.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Good thing that Oil in iraq is paying for this war, we have all that money you speak of.. Really we do...........

They seem to have left out the two largest spending streams. Corporate welfare and military spending in its many guises. I also wonder about these FICA taxes that are taken out of every paycheck. I understand that that money is for Social Security but that in fact that money is spent by the government as they see fit, perhaps leaving an IOU in its stead. SOOO we have been paying for SS all along and now we have to bail it out because the Govt't will not honor its promise to pay back the sytem? Easy to see how people would have so little faith in the lying cheaters who ruin this country on a daily basis.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've got nothing left to give. Once again, they know 'we' can't cover the bill but will put our future generations under the slave debt well before thay are even born.

I found this thread using the search feature looking for anything posted about truth in accounting.
Truth in Accounting

This thread is from 2008....It's 2011 now....the numbers aren't getting any better. I believe the link above gives some good ideas on things that can be done by us to get things changed for the better instead of leaping by Trillions and Trillions and Trillions into infinity at the rate we're going.

Each and every single American, be it an old man or a baby, a woman or man, disabled or healthy, owes around $160.000. Why? Cus a few hundred/thousand people just LOVE to gamble and destroy your lives while they receive multi-million dollar BONUSES =)

How this doesn't enrage each and every one of you is beyond me. It's like I'm in the twilight-zone...

Edit: My bad, it's actually closer to 380.000 USD per person in the USA.
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