True picture of US Debt

[Beiruty]

Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 143%. America’s is officially 97%. But the $14.3 trillion national debt, stacked up against a $14.7 trillion economy, doesn’t tell the whole story. Look at these numbers:
• $14.3 trillion: “official” national debt
• $5 trillion: Amount Uncle Sam is on the hook for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• $62 trillion: Total liabilities and unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare
That doesn’t count the black box of bailouts.


Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-caught-holdi ... 53227.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[b322da]

Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 143%. America’s is officially 97%. But the $14.3 trillion national debt, stacked up against a $14.7 trillion economy, doesn’t tell the whole story. Look at these numbers:
• $14.3 trillion: “official” national debt
• $5 trillion: Amount Uncle Sam is on the hook for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
• $62 trillion: Total liabilities and unfunded obligations for Social Security and Medicare
That doesn’t count the black box of bailouts.


Full story here: http://news.yahoo.com/dont-caught-holdi ... 53227.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a brief explanation of what I believe should be considered by the incompetents on both sides of the aisle that we -- yes, you, me, and the other readers here -- have knowingly sent to Washington. My apologies to anyone who can affirm that he or she has never voted for even one individual now part of the national executive or legislative branches. (I exclude from this apology someone who doesn't bother voting).

I regret that I have not seen this suggestion made by either the White House or The HIll.

"[T]he United States doesn't need, and shouldn't have, a debt ceiling. ... Every other democratic country, with the exception of Denmark, does fine without one. There's no debt limit in the Constitution. And, if Congress really wants to hold down government debt, it already has a way to do so that doesn't risk economic chaos-namely, the annual budgeting process. The only reason we need to lift the debt ceiling, after all, is to pay for spending that Congress has already authorized. If the debt ceiling isn't raised, we'll face an absurd scenario in which Congress will have ordered the President to execute two laws that are flatly at odds with each other. If he obeys the debt ceiling, he cannot spend the money that Congress has told him to spend, which is why most government functions will be shut down. Yet if he spends the money as Congress has authorized him to he'll end up violating the debt ceiling. ...

"[T]he debt limit actually makes the President less accountable to Congress, not more: if the ceiling isn't raised, it's President Obama who will be deciding which bills get paid and which don't, with no say from Congress. ... Advocates of the ceiling like the way it turns the national debt into front-page news, focussing the minds of voters and politicians; they think it fosters accountability, straight talk, transparency. ... That's why politicians like the debt ceiling: it allows them to rail against borrowing more money (which voters hate) without having to vote to cut any specific programs or raise taxes (which voters also hate)." (Credits to the New Yorker via Politico Playbook, 7/24/2011).

Elmo