The real debt

[charrison]

linkage

Since 1965, publicly held debt has averaged 31.1 percent of gross domestic product (the low was 18.3 percent in 1974; the high, 44.4 percent in 1993). This year, working from government projections, it will be around 32 percent ? hardly a catastrophe. And its drop from the 1993 peak to 28 percent of GDP eight years later shows that, with a little less spending and a little more economic growth, it can quickly plummet (even, conceivably, to levels that might create problems for the capital markets, where U.S. government bonds play a vital role in sophisticated portfolio strategies).


...


2003 study from the American Enterprise Institute translated the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security into easy-to-understand terms. What, the authors asked, is the present-value equivalent in bonded debt not covered by current reserves or taxes of the government's future obligations under Social Security and Medicare? Their answer: $7 trillion for Social Security; $36.6 trillion for Medicare.

That's more than 10 times the size of "the federal debt."



These numbers have risen from zero in the mid '60s; now they vastly exceed any gap that can be closed with traditional spending cuts or quick-fix tax hikes, whether on the rich or anyone else. They will require entirely new strategies ? strategies that Kerry has vowed to oppose and Bush has already explicitly (if timidly) embraced.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: charrison
linkage

They will require entirely new strategies ? strategies that Kerry has vowed to oppose and Bush has already explicitly (if timidly) embraced.

Awwww, poor Neocons will just have to deal with now.

Us peons don't care as long as we're not being pushed down like an American Caste system that the Neocons have created, no thanks.

Funny, the Debt wasn't a problem under the last Democratic President, maybe it won't be a problem under the next one. We'll find out in a couple of months :thumbsup:

 

[Todd33]

Those are projected numbers. One problem is the money taken from SS and spent on the general budget. Now we effectively owe the SS fund.

http://www.justfacts.com/socialsecurity.htm#Debt


I love the source too, nothing like a Murdoch rag to report the "news".

 

[conjur]

This is what concerns me:

BUSH TAX CUTS TO SEND REVENUES, AS A SHARE OF GDP,
TO LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1959
http://www.cbpp.org/6-4-03tax.htm



CBO FIGURES INDICATE LOWER REVENUES, NOT HIGHER SPENDING, ACCOUNT FOR THE LARGE DEFICIT
As a Share of the Economy, Revenues to Hit Lowest Level in 54 Years
<br>http://www.cbpp.org/1-26-04bud.htm

 

[Jhhnn]

"That's more than 10 times the size of "the federal debt."

Not exactly. GWB Inc has run the debt up to ~$7T, so that's only 6X...

and there's this-

"These numbers have risen from zero in the mid '60s; now they vastly exceed any gap that can be closed with traditional spending cuts or quick-fix tax hikes, whether on the rich or anyone else. They will require entirely new strategies ? strategies that Kerry has vowed to oppose and Bush has already explicitly (if timidly) embraced."

WTF are you talking about? Debt is the problem, and all the Repubs have done is run it up like crackwhores with your credit cards and pin#'s... They're making it worse, not better, looting the treasury in much the same way they lined their pockets as the S&amp;L's were sinking...

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
"That's more than 10 times the size of "the federal debt."

Not exactly. GWB Inc has run the debt up to ~$7T, so that's only 6X...

I beleive this is referring to the debt the goverment owes the public which is about 4Trillion. There is about another 3 trillion the goverment owes itself. This is the portion of debt that was ignored when we had a balanced budget

 

[Spencer278]

Originally posted by: charrison
linkage

These numbers have risen from zero in the mid '60s; now they vastly exceed any gap that can be closed with traditional spending cuts or quick-fix tax hikes, whether on the rich or anyone else. They will require entirely new strategies ? strategies that Kerry has vowed to oppose and Bush has already explicitly (if timidly) embraced.

Would bush strategies be increasing spend 400 billion dollars more in 10 years be the solution to the problem? I havent seen bush change SS and or medicare in anyway but expanding it.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Despite English being my first language I'm a little confused. How do you explicitly embrace something (timidly)?

 

[LunarRay]

My english thinks the Federal government owes a tad bit more than 5 or 7 trillion $... Me thinks it is more like 30 trillion when you consider... the public debt, Social Security, railroad retirement, bank deposit and savings and loan insurance, guaranteed student loans, International Monetary Fund and etc.

I wonder how that has grown over the last 50 years.. and who has to pay it and out of what source...??

 

[Kibbo]

Taking the Present value of future liabilities is a very misleading technique when discussing government policy.

It does not take into account growth in the economy due to population increase (immigration in the US's case) or productivity growth.