Antisocialist Loc: Florida

Most people look at the $18 trillion National Debt and believe that is the entire debt owed by the US government. But it is nowhere close to stating our full debt.

That $18 trillion number is the National Debt and does not include unfunded or underfunded government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Federal Government Pensions. Those 3 programs alone are underfunded to the tune of more than $80 trillion. When you consider the fact there are hundreds of other Federal, State, County, and local government programs that are underfunded, the US has more than $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities.

Lawrence Kotlikoff is an economist and Professor at Boston University. He has become the leading voice to force the US government to show America its true financial obligations. I’ll post a short clip of an interview he did with Jim Puplava, a journalist from the Financial Sense organization.

Jim Puplava: Professor, officially we’re in debt over $17 trillion but underneath it there’s a bigger problem. I wonder if you might explain to our listeners what that bigger problem is?

Professor Kotlikoff: The liabilities the government owes are mostly off the books. We have a true debt picture which is about $205 trillion. This is recording all the future obligations the government has, whether they are official obligations or not, such as paying for your social security benefits, mine, or your mother’s Medicare benefits, defense spending, etc. All of these things are really obligations that aren’t recorded on the books as debt, whereas paying off future principal and interest payments on Treasury bills and bonds are recorded. So, anyway, if you take the value of all of those commitments and subtract all the taxes coming to pay those commitments, the difference is what’s called the fiscal gap; and that fiscal gap in the U.S. is now $205 trillion. So, the true debt is $205 trillion; the official debt is only $17 trillion. So, most of the problems we’re facing, most of the debt we have, the vast majority of it is off the books and Congress has done bookkeeping to make sure the public doesn’t see it. So, when we have these big fights over the debt ceiling, it’s really laughable because at the same time we may not be expanding our official debt at a very rapid rate, we are expanding our unofficial debt or off-the-book debt, unrecorded debt, at a very high rate.

Jim Puplava: Professor, when the CBO publishes its projections they use something called the extended baseline forecast. They also have something called the alternative fiscal scenario, which is basically more realistic. This year they reported only the extended baseline forecast. Why did they do that?

Professor Kotlikoff: I don’t know. They claim it wasn’t for political reasons and I believe them. There are very good economists at the CBO. The director is a very good economist, but you have to wonder why is it that for the last 6 or 7 years they put out the extended baseline as well as the alternative fiscal scenario at the same time so everybody could see what they really project versus what really amounts to a lie about the fiscal future of the country.

I sent him [head of the CBO] an email and asked whether he was under some sort of political pressure to withhold this information and he said that was a big insult, and he was very upset with me for suggesting that. But then he said that the reason he hadn’t released it was because they didn’t think anyone was interested. I said, well obviously we’re interested—it’s the only thing worth looking at.

Everybody should be calling the CBO and asking why they’re doing this. This is a pattern, you know. The Clinton administration—we put out the fiscal gap studies for a couple of years on the President’s budget. The Clinton administration then censored it. The guys who’s now head of the National Economic Council, the Chief Economic Advisor to President Obama, was the one who did the censorship back in 1994. President Bush’s Treasury Secretary O’Neil wanted us to do a fiscal gap accounting for the President’s budget in 2003 and he was fired in December 7, 2002, and that study was censored two days after he was fired. So, this is not accidental. This is more or less a conspiracy to hide the t***h to keep ourselves and our kids in the dark about what the politicians are really doing, which is trying to garner the v**es of older people and then get reelected and leave a bigger mess for our kids to handle.

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/laurence-kotlikoff/government-conspiracy-hide-us-debt-burden that’s a link to the interview and here’s another good article with some Kotlikoff comments.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09-11/lawrence-kotlikoff-us-fiscal-gap-200-trillion-our-country-broke

Our government won’t even address the $18 trillion in debt they admit to. There is no reason to believe for one moment they will begin address the $200 trillion number and that can only lead to one possible outcome; total and devastating collapse of the US.

Americans watch their televisions with news of civil strife and violence from other parts of the world and say, ‘I’m glad that can’t happen here’. They watched as citizens of Cyprus had their savings confiscated from their bank accounts and said ‘I’m glad that can’t happen here’. It will happen here.

We’re beginning to see the cracks in our society with cities and counties declaring bankruptcy, states declaring their pensions are on track to consume 100% of state budgets, and the government raising taxes on anything that moves. The government is beyond broke. What do you think will happen?

reconreb Loc: America / Inglis Fla.

T***h is hard to uderstand to the l*****t , they only understand other peoples money, hard work, sacrifice , that in some way allows there justifcation of takeing of yours to give to the so called poor. You can only be poor if you what to be!

boatbob2

It would be LAUGHABLE,If the debt is/was really this high,I believe it is, BUT,the fun will start when the (our) government cant borrow any more money,just think,,no obozophones,no unemployment payments,no welfare,no snap program, this is going to be a SERIOUS problem,but,the people in DC,think with their little heads,instead of the one on their shoulders,We have a FEW (damn few) politicians,who try to do the right things,but,the i***tic morons like boneless,and harry,almost completely rebuff the,,,

America Only Loc: From the right hand of God

The political agenda in the USA does not have any human population interests in mind at all. The objective of our elected officials is not to serve the public, yet rather to build up their own bank accounts and power. The population of the the USA is well in need of facing the t***h that collectively we need to take our country back.

J Anthony Loc: Connecticut

Nothing is going to happen until the government and media address the root of the problem, which is the usurious, privately-owned and controlled monetary-system. It's about who has the power to issue currency and how they do it. The natinal debt, clearly a liability to the government and we citizzens, is actually an asset to the private bankers and financiers it's owed to. Once one understands how it works and why, it becomes obvious the debt is odious and unpayable, and trying to go forward as if it's legitimate without addressing the root-cause is pure insanity.

America Only Loc: From the right hand of God

I do agree. I also have to think really if a few key officials involved, no matter who or what they are, were grabbed up and dealt with by an angry mob, that they would stop all the bulls**t they have been doing in washington far too long now. It would only take a few events to bring the inner circle of creaps and crooks to reach an understanding that the American public is all done with all the corruption. Any elected official would eventually conclude they would be in some real danger and have to really face the piper if they did not just do their job and stopped with all the crooked crap. I am really thinking just like what the french people did in taking shots at the muslims in france! They are saying, we are frigging all done with you camel climbers.......and so what they hell....if people are going to be all rip roaring in the USA about anything at all, then everyone needs to be marching to washington and calling some of those a holes outside to answer to US the American people....the Citizens....and they best be able to tell the t***h and serve and not be a frigging t*****r...and for those that are guilty as sin.....citizens arrest them...put them in custody.....let them be found guilty and then execute their sorry azz.

norte

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.

newyork

You know the US has become bats**t insane today when:

The answer to endless wars is more wars.

The answer to the police state is more tyranny.

The answer to a dead economy is starting a trade war.

The answer to regulations is more laws.

The answer to endless debt is more debt.

https://t***h-zone.net/forum/public-zone.html