America Is Insolvent, Broke, Deep into the Red
The comments below are an edited and abridged synopsis of an article by Jeff Chidester
What would you do if someone demanded that you pay them $291,000? Worse still, what if they said that your family actually owes $748,000? You would think it was absurd, but you would be wrong. Every American is on the hook for the nation’s debt.
There is a misconception about the amount of debt America owes. The number $21 trillion is bandied about, but that is only a fraction of the national obligation. At the end of 2018, the federal government had a combined total of $95.4 trillion in unfunded obligations, liabilities and debts.
America’s combined liability is almost five times the size of the US economy, and the debt is 27 times larger than the annual federal revenues (taxes and fees). The national debt of $95.4 trillion also represents the combined net worth of 88% of all US households and nonprofit organizations.
That amount ($95.4 trillion) does not include Social Security and Medicare. The Supreme Court has ruled that Social Security is not insurance or property. The amount paid is calculated into benefit totals, but the laws that govern Social Security fall to Congress, and Congress can change (reduce or halt) benefits at any time.
When $95 trillion is combined with Social Security and Medicare commitments, the total national debt, liabilities and unfunded obligations amount is closer to $200 trillion. Combine that with the billions of unfunded liabilities at the state and local level, and the US is insolvent, broke, and deep into the red.
Slave reparations, paying off the current $1 trillion in student college debt, universal healthcare, universal basic income, free daycare, free college, the Green New Deal, modern monetary theory, tax the rich at 70%…why not? Just keep printing more money, borrowing from your enemies, and borrow and spend yourselves into prosperity.
Subsidies, too big to fail, bailouts, tariffs, QE and tax cuts without balanced budgets have all contributed to the reckless American economic model. On top of that, there are irresponsible policies being pushed by the Democratic presidential candidates. Americans keep doing the same things over and over, expecting different results.
Maybe the question should be, what’s the plan for fixing America’s debt crisis.