Rules 'Hiding' Trillions In Debt; Liability $516,348 Per U.S. Household

Source: http://rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Feducate%2Fcollege%2Fpolisci%

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year -- far more than the official $248 billion deficit -- when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss -- equal to $11,434 per household -- is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.

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Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later. The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition.

Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.


Read more: USA Today

Act now, and you'll also get no Medicaid - absolutely FREE!

to General Discussion.

but be sure your AVG is up to date:
http://rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Feducate%2Fcollege%2Fpolisci%2Farticles%2F20070603.htm

Sorry Government, I ain't a got it and I ain't a gettin'it.

my butt

:mad:

So I don't believe this can be blamed on entitlements.

You try to live on that!

Yes, it's all fuckedup
But, no, it's not because all of us
who paid into SS for the last 30 years
on a promise that is wholly inadequate and ultimately immoral

Don't spend the money on unnecessary war
and blame it on entitlements

years - there has been no decrease in the "budget deficit" - I is Social Security payroll taxes that moves the number around plus the dewlaying of cash outlays (we use a cash system in the US - not accrual accounting.

But this 1.3 trillion nonsense is giving accrual accounting a bad name - it is not how accounting is done in the real world - it is just Snows' weird idea that he developed to use to sell the idea of destroying Social Security.

First using projection number 3 (yes there are 3 projections) and inputing the numbers into this idiot method, we actually made money last year - and you know that is bull.

But the could news is that this years version of ridiculous is better than last years - last years the projections were to the end of time - this year they are just for 75 years.

All this tells you is that health care costs if we do not switch to single payer national health, and allow health insurance companies to act in a manner that grows there profit 15-20% per year, there will reach a point were all the economic activity in this country - the total GNP - is made up of health care costs. Yet another crazy result of this projection method.

Look at the national debt and note the year to year increase - that increase is the deficit - and idiots like Snow and Bush can't BS you into some other number if you just realize that the national debt is the only number to look at.

do *not* include future income, unless it's there by contract.

Have a contract to sell a million widgets next year, ok, as far as I know (unless the Enron disaster that happened under Clinton got the rules changed) you get to put down the income.

So, you see, the number is actually a rather grand lie--a lie because the people who produced it know that it gives a completely distorted picture of the actual state of affairs (and they *want* people to believe that the distortion is reality).

The reason it's a lie is because if anybody has guaranteed income for the time period the "study" includes, it's the US government. Moreover, it's a lie because the iron-clad debts that the number assumes aren't iron-clad--they can be altered at Congress's whim.

By that token, the debt the family I'm in is overwhelming--we have our own food, shelter, services, etc., to pay--guaranteed expenses--and if we live to be 70 years old that's a lot of $. Then we have our kid--and if we have a second one, or a third one, the numbers will skyrocket even more. We owe many hundreds of thousands of dollars each, with our yearly income far below that. How will we ever pay it off? It's hopeless, we've all be wastrels, we're doomed. (Hint: Future income, unless guaranteed, is *not* on the ledger.)