Data Point One: actual accrued liabilities are kept off our Federal balance sheets, in a manner that would be illegal for almost all private businesses and public pension funds.
Data Point Two: if we accrue them honestly, they amount, approximately, to some $86 trillion.
Data Point Three: “When the accrued expenses of the government’s entitlement programs are
counted, it becomes clear that to collect enough tax revenue just to
avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax
collections annually. That is the total of the average annual accrued
liabilities of just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the
annual cash deficit.”
Data Point Four: “According to the most recent tax data, all individuals filing tax
returns in America and earning more than $66,193 per year have a total
adjusted gross income of $5.1 trillion. In 2006, when corporate taxable
income peaked before the recession, all corporations in the U.S. had
total income for tax purposes of $1.6 trillion. That comes to $6.7
trillion available to tax from these individuals and corporations under
existing tax laws.”
Conclusion One: “if the government confiscated the entire adjusted gross income of these
American taxpayers, plus all of the corporate taxable income in the
year before the recession, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to fund the over
$8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities. Some public
officials and pundits claim we can dig our way out through tax increases
on upper-income earners, or even all taxpayers. In reality, that would
amount to bailing out the Pacific Ocean with a teaspoon. Only by
addressing these unsustainable spending commitments can the nation’s
debt and deficit problems be solved.”
Conclusion Two (my own): not only is Granny CERTAIN to go over a cliff–not only are substantial cuts to the programs going to essential for national survival–but our kids are going to go over a cliff as well.
There will come a time–assuming we don’t fall into a history-deleting tyranny–when the idiocy and short-sightedness, and simple greed of this period will be seen with the contempt they well warrant.