$5 Trillion...Oh, Boy!!! - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

jplinville · #1 05-24-2012, 11:35 AM

Real federal deficit dwarfs official tally

Quote:

The typical American household would have paid nearly all of its income in taxes last year to balance the budget if the government used standard accounting rules to compute the deficit, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Under those accounting practices, the government ran red ink last year equal to $42,054 per household — nearly four times the official number reported under unique rules set by Congress.
A U.S. household's median income is $49,445, the Census reports.
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.
Contrasting deficits

The federal government calculates the deficit in a way that makes the number smaller than if standard accounting rules were followed (in trillions).
Sources: USA TODAY research; Congressional Budget Office

Deficits are a major issue in this year's presidential campaign, but USA TODAY has calculated federal finances under accounting rules since 2004 and found no correlation between fluctuations in the deficit and which party ran Congress or the White House.
Key findings:
•Social Security had the biggest financial slide. The government would need $22.2 trillion today, set aside and earning interest, to cover benefits promised to current workers and retirees beyond what taxes will cover. That's $9.5 trillion more than was needed in 2004.
•Deficits from 2004 to 2011 would be six times the official total of $5.6 trillion reported.
•Federal debt and retiree commitments equal $561,254 per household. By contrast, an average household owes a combined $116,057 for mortgages, car loans and other debts.
"By law, the federal government can't tell the truth," says accountant Sheila Weinberg of the Chicago-based Institute for Truth in Accounting.
Jim Horney, a former Senate budget staff expert now at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says retirement programs should not count as part of the deficit because, unlike a business, Congress can change what it owes by cutting benefits or lifting taxes.
"It's not easy, but it can be done. Retirement programs are not legal obligations," he says.

spdrun · #2 05-24-2012, 11:37 AM

No one has the b@lls to raise taxes.
No one has the b@lls to cut funding to "defense contractor" parasites for projects that even the military doesn't find useful.

jplinville · #3 05-24-2012, 11:51 AM

As long as cutting the defense budget doesn't cut the ability of strength of our military, I'm all for it!

spdrun · #4 05-24-2012, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jplinville

As long as cutting the defense budget doesn't cut the ability of strength of our military, I'm all for it!

Frankly, at long as we maintain the ability to DEFEND ourselves (as opposed to propping up terrorist states in the M.E. for the sake of oil), then I'm good with it. Some of the money saved can go to things that pay future dividends -- like weaning ourselves off fossil fuels entirely.

jplinville · #5 05-24-2012, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spdrun

Frankly, at long as we maintain the ability to DEFEND ourselves (as opposed to propping up terrorist states in the M.E. for the sake of oil), then I'm good with it. Some of the money saved can go to things that pay future dividends -- like weaning ourselves off fossil fuels entirely.

Nice fantasy...

spdrun · #6 05-24-2012, 12:35 PM

Yeah, it's a f@@king fantasy that Americans and their government would actually do the responsible thing instead of keeping to old habits that didn't work in the past or now. G-d bless America and the garbage running it.

Botnst · #7 05-24-2012, 12:58 PM

Quick! Give more money to failing industries! More money for public union jobs!

jplinville · #8 05-24-2012, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spdrun

Yeah, it's a f@@king fantasy that Americans and their government would actually do the responsible thing instead of keeping to old habits that didn't work in the past or now. G-d bless America and the garbage running it.

Are you this pleasant in real life, or is this just an internet persona you created to boost your ego?

TheDon · #9 05-24-2012, 01:30 PM

Hurrary! The American Dream is dead!!!!

spdrun · #10 05-24-2012, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jplinville

Are you this pleasant in real life, or is this just an internet persona you created to boost your ego?

Guess when you have nothing to say, you resort to non-sequiturs. And yeah, my pleasant thoughts are real. The average American voter deserves nothing better than the royal pimp slapping that they're getting from big business and big government. They voted it in due to their own stupidity; they own it.

jplinville · #11 05-24-2012, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spdrun

Guess when you have nothing to say, you resort to non-sequiturs. And yeah, my pleasant thoughts are real. The average American voter deserves nothing better than the royal pimp slapping that they're getting from big business and big government. They voted it in due to their own stupidity; they own it.

Oh, I have plenty to say, I assure you.

SwampYankee · #12 05-24-2012, 02:06 PM

You mean we haven't spent, spent, spent our way back to prosperity yet?

JB3 · #13 05-24-2012, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spdrun

Guess when you have nothing to say, you resort to non-sequiturs. And yeah, my pleasant thoughts are real. The average American voter deserves nothing better than the royal pimp slapping that they're getting from big business and big government. They voted it in due to their own stupidity; they own it.

I for one am extremely curious to find out where you are from. Something that you for some reason don't want to admit. You live in the US, you hate the US, and you do everything you can to disassociate yourself from it, but yet here you are.

You say you hold dual citizenship in another thread, so you went through the trouble to become an American citizen? or do you vote? I think its silly to be afraid to admit where you are really from. Come on.

I do agree that a basic measure is to reduce spending and increase income, makes basic financial sense. Easier said than done though at the moment, reducing military spending would be nice, but again, easier said than done at the exact second.

barry123400 · #14 05-24-2012, 06:41 PM

Eventually everything becomes an alice in wonderland senario if no reponsibility exists in financial matters. . My guess is that our repective governments will continue to mask true expendature levels and obligations as they probably always have.

I tried to determine just the overall spending levels of one small government department years ago. The audited balance sheets etc where overlapping each other in such a fashion that I could really not determine anything. Smoke and mirrors is the operational acounting methods applied on purpose. Of course the accountants follow their rules.

My concern is the ongoing and long term effects of such policies. It almost appears that the people we elect and the structured mini empires they figurehead care absolutly nothing for the eventual consequences. I would almost think that they are the enemy of the average person in reality. This may well be the reason that we cannot get clear of the current and ongoing mess and re anchor the economy to get it really building again properly. There is little reality left other than runaway spending at all government levels. It has gotten to the point of effecting almost everything unfortunatly. The spending value or purchasing power of my dollars has really taken a bath reciently.

Kuan · #15 05-24-2012, 07:03 PM

I'm OK with that just as long as they don't change the metric. It is reality, just don't give us a different look from year to year so we can do something about it.