My question is a simple one. How will adding more to the below figure benefit the country as a whole? At what point does the piece of straw break the camels back?
Quantifying the National Debt
* As of September 3, 2013, the official debt of the United States government is $16.7 trillion ($16,738,618,787,875).
[1] This amounts to:
$52,909 for every person living in the U.S.
[2]
$138,240 for every household in the U.S.
[3]
100% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
[4]
526% of annual federal revenues.
[5]
* Publicly traded companies are legally required to account for "explicit" and "implicit" future obligations such as employee pensions and retirement benefits.
[6] [7] [8] The federal budget, which is the "federal government's primary financial planning and control tool," is not bound by this rule.
[9] [10]
* At the close of the federal government's 2012 fiscal year (September 30, 2012), the federal government had roughly:
$7.5 trillion ($7,517,000,000,000) in liabilities that are not accounted for in the national debt, such as federal employee retirement benefits, accounts payable, and environmental/disposal liabilities.
[11]
$21.6 trillion ($21,622,000,000,000) in obligations for current Social Security participants above and beyond projected revenues from their payroll and benefit taxes, certain transfers from the general fund of the U.S. Treasury, and assets of the Social Security trust fund.
[12]
$27.0 trillion ($27,000,000,000,000) in obligations for current Medicare participants above and beyond projected revenues from their payroll taxes, benefit taxes, premium payments, and assets of the Medicare trust fund.
[13]
* The figures above are determined in a manner that approximates how publicly traded companies are required to calculate their liabilities and obligations.
[14] [15] [16] The obligations for Social Security and Medicare represent how much money must be immediately placed in interest-bearing investments to cover the projected shortfalls between dedicated revenues and expenditures for all current participants in these programs (both taxpayers and beneficiaries).
[17] [18] [19]
* Combining the figures above with the national debt and subtracting the value of federal assets, the federal government had about $67.7 trillion ($67,726,000,000,000) in debts, liabilities, and
unfinanced obligations for current Social Security and Medicare participants at the close of its 2012 fiscal year.
[20]
* This $67.7 trillion shortfall is 105% of the combined net worth of all U.S. households and nonprofit organizations, including all assets in savings, real estate, corporate stocks, private businesses, and consumer durable goods such as automobiles.
[21] [22]
* This shortfall equates to:
$215,311 for every person living in the U.S.
[23]
$559,331 for every household in the U.S.
[24]
428% of the U.S. gross domestic product.
[25]
2,513% of annual federal revenues.
[26]
* These figures do not account for the future costs implied by any current policies except those of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
[27]
* These figures are contingent upon the continuance of current federal law and "a wide range of complex assumptions" made by federal agencies."
[28] Regarding this:
Social Security's 2012 annual report states that "significant uncertainty" surrounds the "best estimates" of future circumstances.
[29]
Medicare's 2012 annual report states that the program's financial projections "do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range
or the long range" because:
- "Current law would require a physician fee reduction of an estimated 30.9 percent on January 1, 2013an implausible expectation."- The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) eventually reduces "Medicare prices for hospital, skilled nursing facility, home health, hospice, ambulatory surgical center, diagnostic laboratory, and many other services" to "less than half of their level under the prior law.
. Well before that point, Congress would have to intervene to prevent the withdrawal of providers from the Medicare market and the severe problems with beneficiary access to care that would result.
[This] would lead to substantially higher costs for Medicare in the long range than those projected under current law."
[30]
So you think Ted Cruz is crazy...
