This is the companion blog to the MyGovSpending.com website.





Thursday, March 11, 2010

Paddling with the Penguins? US TREASURY REPORTS FEDERAL DEBT INCREASED $4.2 TRILLION IN 2009 - THAT IS $31,000 PER FAMILY

It's no secret that America's public debt is an iceberg floating in busy shipping lanes.

The $1.3 trillion federal financial shortfall of 2009 amounts to fresh public debt of $9,200 that the average US family will pay -- plus interest, of course.

But that deficit is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the newly released 2009 Financial Report of the United States, the government piled another $2.9 trillion in unfunded public liabilities on taxpayers, or another $21,300 per family. Ouch!

How? The value of government's increasingly threadbare "promises" to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits rose that much during fiscal 2009. It's the same old song: fewer workers, more oldsters, higher costs.

This perilous $3 trillion annual shortfall of largely retirement obligations  is not "calving" from emergencies. It's accumulated from decades of knuckleheaded leaders insideWashington and out (including we the people) who have failed to face the perennially predicted propulsion of demographics.

On the bright side, the $21,300 per family of public debt chalked up to future Social Security and Medicare is not yet spent. On the dark side, retirees fully expect to spend it.

The ship that is America's budget is steaming full speed ahead. There's an iceberg clearly in view. It's growing at $4 trillion a year. And the leaders supposedly at the wheel are bickering about relative trifles.

As mere citizens, we seem to squeeze our eyes shut and hope. Or we can grab the wheel. 
_______________________________________________
Sources:
See the fiscal year 2009 Financial Report of the United States Government published by the US Treasury at http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/09frusg/09frusg.pdf.  Refer specifically to the table on page xiii titled "Nation by the Numbers, A Snapshot of The Government's Financial Position and Condition".  This table includes "Net Operating Cost", very similar to the "Federal Deficit" of the headlines, and it includes Statements of  Social Insurance from 2008 to 2009, Open gGroup, 75 year projection period from which the changes in unfunded liabilities are calculated.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Add your comment here: