Posted on 10/23/2007 2:18:21 PM PDT by bs9021
Contrary to popular public opinion, however, the current debt crisis has little to do with the Iraq War so much as profligate congressional spending, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller, David M. Walker. He told a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) audience this October that the current fiscal crisis can be largely attributed to “known demographic trends and rising healthcare costs,” and that “the status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable.”
Currently, the GAO estimates that each American citizen carries approximately $170,000 in federal debt, or $440,000 in federal debt per household. As the American population ages, Medicare and Social Security costs will increase, with the GAO forecasting that combined Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will exceed 20% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. In 2006, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security combined accounted for 40% of the federal budget. Up from 1% of the federal budget in 1966, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for 19% of the budget in 2006. Conversely, proportionate defense spending precipitously declined between 1966 and 2006 from 43% of federal expenditures to 20% of federal expenditures.
According to the GAO report, total federal liabilities currently stand at $50.5 trillion dollars. The United States total household net worth is $53.3 trillion dollars, signifying a 95% debt to net worth ratio. In other words, total federal debt currently offsets 95% of the nation's value. During his speech, Walker likened the current American fiscal circumstances to a “burning platform,” arguing that economic growth was insufficient to rectify the problem, because only double-digit growth for the next 75 years could balance the budget without a reduction in expenditures.
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
I thought this would be a story about my ex-wife.
i don’t see any problem here. after all, the government can just print more money.
Taxpayers getting fisted one more time:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1915031/posts
No lube....either.
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