The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.
The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government’s books.
That is interesting!
The government lies.
I am shocked and dismayed.
Its more like the gummint lies dormant while the debt piles up…
When the debt equals 12 trillion dollars, we’ll just have to put a For Sale sign on the whole country and close up the USA.
Its was a grand experiment. We learned a lot about property and its importance to prosperity. We learned a lot about the importance of proper management.
Now lets gets back to reality.
We’ll just hand the country over to the billionaires, divided up equally/equitably between ’em, hope they don’t go back to claiming baronial privilege* on our wedding nights and starting wars over their own petty squabbles.
Its the way things are going to go in the EU as well.
All those pretty picturesque castles along the Rhine are about to get occupied again.
The Muslim theocracies are the closest things to the sorry state that most communist countries had descended to before communism’s collapse because communism is no way to run an economy. There’s no incentive in it for the average person.
I really pity them because theocracies (like Europe in the Middle Ages,) is a step way back in civilization.
*) The baron used to claim the best looking people (usually the women,) on their wedding night, just for shits and giggles.
Here’s the thing, the government is not legally required to make those payments in the future. They could just stop paying Social Security benefits. That is the current path we are on.
Yeah.
Required to pay, though. Funny how that works 🙂
If I could get my money paid into social security back, even if taxed at my normal rate in exchange for opting out of future access to the attached benefit… I would take that deal so damn fast!
Yes, yes……and then what would you do?
And that IS why the Republicans need to lose.
Why, so Social Security payments won’t be made?
And how many days has it been without a Federal budget?
On May 14, 2012 the Senate Republicans took to the floor of the upper chamber for a meeting to mark Democrats’ latest non-budget milestone: 1,111 days since the Senate last passed a budget.
No wonder we don’t know how much we owe.
Article does not mention even more absurd part of this (implemented first in a major way by famous “no deficit” President Clinton): Government can and does take money OUT of Social Security pot for general purposes spending. Formally they owe that money back. But, here is the kick: this stealing counts as income! So, deficit number is higher than 5T$ for a double of amount that Government “borrowed” out of Social Security funds during 2011 (sorry, I do not know that number but it ain’t low). Also, hole in Social Security is deeper in reality as a lot of “funds” there are essentially loans to the Government without any collateral.
The folks who are getting the free shit, don’t like the folks who are paying for the free shit,
Because the folks who are paying for the free shit,
Can no longer afford to pay for both the free shit and their own shit,
And,
The folks who are paying for the free shit,
Want the free shit to stop.
and the the folks who are getting the free shit,
Want even more free shit on top of the free shit they are already getting!
Now… The people who are forcing the people who Pay for the free shit,
Have told the people who are RECEIVING the free shit,
That the people who are PAYING for the free shit,
Are being mean, prejudiced, and racist.
So… the people who are GETTING the free shit,
Have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free shit,
By the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free shit,
And giving them the free shit in the first place.
We have let the free shit giving go on for so long that there are
Now more people getting free shit than paying for the free shit.
Now understand this. All great democracies have committed financial suicide
somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason?
The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing
people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
How did George Carlin get on here?
I don’t consider Social Security or Medicare “free shit”. I paid for it with my own money.
People have made this criticism of the government’s use of cash accounting over accrual accounting for some time now; and the government’s response is that the government is free at any point to change its entitlement program obligations… which while technically true, politically it is usually not.
Which means most people are going to get a heck of a lot less than they paid in assuming they actually paid in anything.
THIS FECAL MATTER HAS GOT TO STOP!
While the mantra is that we are going bankrupt because of “entitlement mentality” the REALITY is that every problem you can name has at its roots the already too rich wanting even more.
Go ahead look. Just LOOK!!! – – and prove me wrong.
EVERY ISSUE!
Any program you want to name as causing a deficit could be easily fixed by phased in changes and locked boxes to stop the looting. Yes–EVERY SINGLE ONE.
But the poor as always will be singled out as causing all the problems. The jews of modern scapegoating.
Yes–policy will be directed against the poorest of the poor to start with: 13 Million to lose food stamps, because you know, its entitlement mentality for the USA to feed those who don’t retrain themselves as electrical engineers.
But they are coming for all of us next, not with a bullet, but with a shotgun: inflation. The tell tale consequence of corrupted government. So as your YOUR retirement gets vaporized==be sure to blame the poor, its meant to make you feel better. Feeling better while strapped ass high to a barrel.
…..and you did it to yourself and your kiddies by voting Republican.
Silly Hoomans.
Well there we go, solve all problems just by not voting Republican.
I guess until then if we ever need a little money we can always call Warren Buffett or George Clooney.
Yeah, he was on a roll until he dropped the “R” bomb.
Nobody will ever convince me that the “D” bomb is the antidote to our problems.
Over consuming, waste, and fraud are the common enemy. Deal with those and things get a lot simplier.
When it comes to the D’s and R’s, voting the R’s out will not solve all the problems, its only the start.
If you can’t vote against R’s–how you gonna vote against the D’s later?
YES–our problem today is a totally corrupt system bought and paid for by Corporate Money lining the pockets of our elected liars. Its mostly but not totally true that D &R are two sides of the same coin when it comes to corruption===but the R’s are worse than the D’s and deserve our attention first.
If you don’t see that–you are blind to your own interests or being paid yourself. Or just dumb.
The Pukes are for the RICH and when you point out 99.9% of the people aren’t RICH, they pull the “class warfare” card as if the RICH haven’t already won the war and are out and about shooting the survivors.
Who in the hell thinks basic social services should be cut IN ORDER TO provide more tax breaks for the RICH?
Who here is dumb enough to believe THAT. That the rich create jobs?
Ha, ha.
Silly Hoomans.
Actually, not voting Republican would solve many problems. They have held America hostage long enough.
Pure Bovine Scatology!
Equine Scatology, my friend.
Pure artiodactylal scatology me friend.
If you guys want the average congressman to understand your feelings, you are going to have to speak at their level.
“Moo Moo Poo Poo” should suffice.
Ha, ha – – your best line ever. Does this mark a change? Shaving now??
The jig is about up for Greece. Others are sure to follow and we may well be in worse shape than Greece.
We were the wealthiest nation on Earth and now we are a debtor nation. Investment funds are going elsewhere. The richest man and woman on Earth used to be Americans but not now. I used to wonder if the debacle would delay until I’m dead. Now I wonder if it will be postponed until my 86 year old mother is dead.
If George Bush’s Social Security reform had passed that 3.7 trillion would not exist, as the personal accounts would have eliminated the liabilities.
Yes, not exist is right, as the financial system crash would have wiped out millions of Americans retirement funds.
A risky plan before the crash; to advocate for it now is just stupid.
This goes back to the passage of the Gramm-Rudman -Hollings law over 25 years ago. It took Social Security revenues and outlays off-budget.
Why is Social Security always brought up in these stupid discussions? It’s only a liability when FICA and the trust fund don’t cover outlays, and we’re not there yet. Leave it the fuck ALONE!
You want to solve this problem? Uphold the laws so that tax paying Americans are given jobs that pay properly so they can pay taxes. Yeah cut corporate welfare too, but we need as many participants in the economy as possible. The laws have been being changed over the past 20 years to screw over the average American worker. The current state is the result. This isn’t difficult to fix people.
In a single year, the trustees reported that this date would happen 3 years earlier than projected the previous year. You would prefer to have the money completely run out, before dealing with the problem? It looks like that could be within 10 years.
Maybe the cost of retirements wouldn’t be so high if our wonderful leaders hadn’t given us a tax break with money collected for Social Security.
Don’t believe what you read. It’s very deceiving.
Except they didn’t.
These problems are just do to bad planning. See I don’t expect the retirement to be solvent in several decades, so I never believed in the idea.
Retirement planning is easy:
When I turn 78, I rent a Hamburglar costume and go to Canada and rob a Burger King with an empty gun.
Free meals! Food! Shelter! TV every day. I might even be able to enjoy the outdoors in a chain gang. Canadian health care! Free phone calls! Getting to meet new people.
Maybe even some internet from time to time.
And if I’m not too wrinkly at 78, maybe I can “get some” in prison. Sure it’d be with a dude, but at that age you gotta take any lovin’ you can get.
Oh goody, another measurement of how big the debt is. Yep, pretty darn big but let’s measure it again next week!!
Instead of measuring it again, how about we :
-raise taxes back to Reagan levels.
-cut defense spending to only the next 22 nations combined. I’m sure we’ll be safe.
-raise entitlement levels on some sliding scale.
-add the cost of Persian Gulf presence and terror costs to price of gasoline
Dallas/Hillary 2016
The money received by the government has not varied more than a few percent of GDP over the last several decades. This has been shown time and time again on this board.
http://tinyurl.com/bv8fymu
Why can’t you accept the fact it has nothing to do with tax rates but the out of control spending? There comes a point where you have to stop backing a horse for personal reasons and start looking at the whole picture. You aren’t that thick-headed so quit acting like it.
Never said the issue is not a spending problem – it is. I’m talking about fixing the problem now, not pointing why and who caused it.
Let’s ignore for a moment that Americans have less income to tax these days. THAT the rich are taking a bigger share of total income than ever but their tax payments are down due to Bush tax cuts, etc. THAT the recession called for bailouts approved by both parties. THAT citizens are getting older placing a growing burden on healthcare and SS. THAT existing deficits drive a growing debt interest….and my FAVORITE : that government pays subsidies to agriculture, defense, wall street.
Let’s just IGNORE the fact that government works for big business and not for the people.
After all that, don’t you think a DOUBLE cocktail of spending CUTS and revenue INCREASE is the best medicine? It seems to me.
Placing all the burden on cuts alone simply won’t work with the current standoff. I assume you agree on my draconian military and entitlement cuts.
I’m not willing to give them a pass for fucking up and increasing the spending.
We survived on $X dollars before all of this. We can do it again.
I’m not living in a two-story mansion with three cars, a boat, summer cottage, off-road play vehicle, and $50k of electronics in my man-cave. I live within my means.
It’s time the rest of America did, too.
Well, I can’t argue with that logic but sadly, that is not the path we’re on.
The best path is the one that worked many times before – compromise with the addition of a balanced budget.
The only positive thing with the current standoff is that the automatic cuts kick in.
Vote for me and Hillary in 2016. We need a gay president to fix this shit. Just like gays fix fucked up neighborhoods, I’m here to help.
I agree, let’s have the top tax rate be 28%.
Obama announced yesterday that George Bush saved or created millions of jobs in America over the last 4 years.
You may have missed it, as it was in code. Obama touted that his spending increases were the lowest by any president in 60 years. Hidden in that argument is that he is crediting George Bush with the stimulus spending, so that his later spending looks like not much of an increase.
pedro insightfully challenges:
5/24/2012 at 5:45 pm
Tell us now Dumbbo what was first: the chicken or the egg /// Eggs come later in evolution, so chickens come first depending on how you define your terms and when you start drawing lines.
To put your highly insightful query into context, I would venture that our corrupt politicians came first only to be attracted to the corporate money that would come to woo them.
Grandpa showing he hasn’t been asleep his waking years says:
5/24/2012 at 6:16 pm
Actually, not voting Republican would solve many problems. They have held America hostage long enough. ////
Thank you Grandpa- – – right you are. Why the puke voting base can’t see this is beyond me. “Values Voters”/Low information voters/ hateful stupid bigots are the most common reasons given.
But providing an actual explanation doesn’t fit on the talking points issued from time to time so when asked, they never have a response.
If you think the deficit is high now, wait till we go to war with Iran.
Actually, over the last decade 65% of spending is on entitlements. Afghanistan is 1%, and Iraq is 3%. National Defense total is around 20%.
Most people see California and Illinois and other cities going bankrupt, and think this is something to be avoided. Then other say, no this is stimulus and brings about economic recovery!
Questions..
What is the monetary unit that our gov. BASES our economy on??
WHY in hell are we worried about banks? OUR country shouldnt be BASING OUR ECONOMY on BANKS..that is basing MONEY ON MONEY…NOT VALUE..
The ONLY ones that suffer when a corp goes under, ARE THE STOCK HOLDERS…
“Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits.”
Yet they insist the US Postal Service include ALL theirs, leading to the current crisis in the USPS
Meaning the problem is there, they just aren’t letting the USPS hide it.
Good insight. Even deeper: the problem is the purposefully too short time frame in which to make the change.
NewfornatSux says:
5/26/2012 at 6:13 am
Most people see California and Illinois and other cities going bankrupt, and think this is something to be avoided. /// Yes.
Then other say, no this is stimulus and brings about economic recovery! /// No one says that.
What’s hypocritical about our Federal Government especially Congress is that they point fingers at Wall Street and big banks all the time. Pass thousands of pages of regulations. Yet our Government spends little effort getting its own house in order.