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<blockquote data-quote="Babagounj" data-source="post: 919664" data-attributes="member: 12952"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dirty-secret-in-uncle-sams-friday-trash-dump/2011/12/28/gIQArtWMNP_story.html" target="_blank">(WaPo)</a>&nbsp; — Releasing information on the Friday before a big holiday is a&nbsp; time-tested way to bury bad news. So when the Government Accountability&nbsp; Office’s fiscal 2011 financial statements for the federal government&nbsp; were released on the Friday before Christmas, it made sense to read them&nbsp; closely.That professionalism is evident in the GAO analysis of the net present&nbsp; value of the Social Security and Medicare promises Washington has made&nbsp; to Americans. “Net present value” means the total that would have to be&nbsp; set aside today to pay the costs of these programs [Medicare and Social&nbsp; Security] in the future. The government puts these numbers in&nbsp; appendices, rather than in headlines.&nbsp;But the costs are real.In fiscal 2011, the cost of the promises grew from $30.9 trillion to&nbsp; $33.8 trillion. To put that in context, consider that the total value of&nbsp; companies traded on U.S. stock markets is $13.1 trillion, based on the&nbsp; Wilshire 5000 index, and the value of the equity in U.S. taxpayers’&nbsp; homes, according to Freddie Mac, is $6.2 trillion.&nbsp;Said another way,&nbsp; there is not enough wealth in America to meet those promises.If the government followed corporate accounting rules, that $2.9&nbsp; trillion increase would be added to the $1.3 trillion cash deficit for&nbsp; fiscal 2011 that has been widely reported. And a $4.2 trillion deficit&nbsp; is something that Americans need to know about.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Babagounj, post: 919664, member: 12952"] [URL="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dirty-secret-in-uncle-sams-friday-trash-dump/2011/12/28/gIQArtWMNP_story.html"](WaPo)[/URL] — Releasing information on the Friday before a big holiday is a time-tested way to bury bad news. So when the Government Accountability Office’s fiscal 2011 financial statements for the federal government were released on the Friday before Christmas, it made sense to read them closely. That professionalism is evident in the GAO analysis of the net present value of the Social Security and Medicare promises Washington has made to Americans. “Net present value” means the total that would have to be set aside today to pay the costs of these programs [Medicare and Social Security] in the future. The government puts these numbers in appendices, rather than in headlines. But the costs are real. In fiscal 2011, the cost of the promises grew from $30.9 trillion to $33.8 trillion. To put that in context, consider that the total value of companies traded on U.S. stock markets is $13.1 trillion, based on the Wilshire 5000 index, and the value of the equity in U.S. taxpayers’ homes, according to Freddie Mac, is $6.2 trillion. Said another way, there is not enough wealth in America to meet those promises. If the government followed corporate accounting rules, that $2.9 trillion increase would be added to the $1.3 trillion cash deficit for fiscal 2011 that has been widely reported. And a $4.2 trillion deficit is something that Americans need to know about. [/QUOTE]

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