Who knew the U.S. government has $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities?
The Chinese government warned the global financial community that it is very concerned about our massive printing of U.S. dollars and that we are using the magically printed money to buy our own T-Bills. We use the money from the “investors” who bought to the T-Bills to cut U.S. government checks. (Think California with the power to print its own currency.) Printing these billions is not done at the mint, it is done via keystroke, into a spread sheet. Type in the numbers and voila, instant U.S. currency is created.
These two facts make for a reasonable question, “Is the U.S. Government Bankrupt?” which was asked by Pete Morin in his article published today in American Thinker.
Here are some exerpts:
Before we continue to debate the merits of any Obama health care plan, we need to consider a few important facts.
“By any rational means, we must consider the present condition of our Government’s financial situation. An honest look at those finances would have a prudent person conclude that our government is tacitly bankrupt. Our unfunded liabilities far exceed our assets. Adding up all unfunded liabilities for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Government sponsored pension funds gives us a figure slightly in excess of $100 TRILLION dollars. That’s TRILLION with a ‘T’. The Federal budget deficit for fiscal 2009 will be approximately $1.84 TRILLION. That’s TRILLION with a ‘T’. Over the next ten years the projected deficit will be $9 TRILLION +. That’s TRILLION with a ‘T’. Of course, this projected deficit comes from the Congressional Budget Office and has to be considered a conservative estimate. In 1966 the feds estimated that the cost of the Medicare program by 1990 would be approximately $9 billion dollars/year; the actual cost was $67 billion dollars/year.
And,
“It’s time for Americans to realize that the good times have stopped rolling. There may be no return to a robust economy. Our future can take only one of two possible paths; either we accept our unsustainable debt and reduce government spending and taxation accordingly with a structured refinancing of the Federal debt, or face the prospect of a chaotic bankruptcy with a massive collapse of the dollar on the world market followed by a severely reduced standard of living. If it’s any indication of the way government has approached past difficulties, I’m betting on the chaotic. Stagflation on a large scale may well make the 1970’s look like high times. Job losses that will occur may well make the 1930’s look like a picnic.”
So, naturally the President of the United States is telling the nation that his health care plan will cost $1 Trillion and will not add one dime to the deficit. Seems like a completely rational statement in a world where we print our own money, to buy our own bonds, to pay our own bills.
And hey, it’s completely legal too.
Given the rational estimates that ObamaCare will, in fact, cost $2 Trillion and not $1 Trillion, then is it any wonder Americans simply no longer trust Congress and large segments of the population think the President is lying about ObamaCare not adding a dime to the deficit?
