How much debt do we actually have?

[mello]

They say the current U.S. debt is at 12.5 trillion but for some reason they don't add the
10 trillion that we owe because of Social Security & 30 trillion that we owe because of
Medicare. That ends up being:

$52,500,000,000,000

Are there any other debts that I'm missing?

[erowe1]

I've heard various numbers for when unfunded liabilities are included. Yours seems to be at the low end. I've read others that put it over $100 Trillion. I haven't bothered to figure out what the best figure is.

[mello]

Wikipedia says we have:

$7.7 trillion relates to Social Security
$38.2 trillion relates to Medicare and Medicaid

Adding this to the national debt and other federal commitments brings the total obligations to
nearly $62 trillion.

The GAO mentioned that by 2019 the total U.S. national debt is projected to be $18.4 trillion.

We are so screwed!

[HOLLYWOOD]

They say the current U.S. debt is at 12.5 trillion but for some reason they don't add the
10 trillion that we owe because of Social Security & 30 trillion that we owe because of
Medicare. That ends up being:

$52,500,000,000,000

Are there any other debts that I'm missing?


Lookie here: http://www.fms.treas.gov/dts/index.html

[Zippyjuan]

"unfunded liabilities" includes things like Social Security and Medicare- assuming that you tried to pay for all the future promised benefits out of this year's budget stream. But they are not paid for only out of this year's tax collections. The money to pay for them continues to come in in future years just as the expenditures are paid out in future years. Using those numbers to try to define our debt greatly exaggerrates it.

[FreeTraveler]

What's this "we" stuff? I don't owe anybody anything. I've paid all the bills I contracted for. Did you sign some sort of paper promising to pay off the nation debt? I musta missed that one.

[ChaosControl]

Well we could sell Maine to Canada and Southern Cali to Mexico

[fj45lvr]

this Debt site is pretty cool: http://www.usdebtclock.org/


don't know about gov. debt but there is alot of private debt.

[Galileo Galilei]

They say the current U.S. debt is at 12.5 trillion but for some reason they don't add the
10 trillion that we owe because of Social Security & 30 trillion that we owe because of
Medicare. That ends up being:

$52,500,000,000,000

Are there any other debts that I'm missing?

The "debt" is only current money borrowed. Medicare and Medcaid account for bills that will come due of around $100 trillion dollars. We don't owe the money yet, but will. There are also ilitary pensions as well.

[jclay2]

They say the current U.S. debt is at 12.5 trillion but for some reason they don't add the
10 trillion that we owe because of Social Security & 30 trillion that we owe because of
Medicare. That ends up being:

$52,500,000,000,000

Are there any other debts that I'm missing?

Its kind of like the scam they have going on with unemployment numbers. To get a real picture, you have to look at the U6. Likewise for the debt, you have to add in all of our unfunded liabilities. When you do this and project out a 100 years, the real number is around 100 trillion or so.

[tremendoustie]

Not my debt.

If the Chinese come knocking, I'll give them the address of congress and the WH. Let them work it off.

[yokna7]

Richard Fisher of the Dallas Fed says it's over 99 trillion

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5379285/China-warns-Federal-Reserve-over-printing-money.html

[Zippyjuan]

Its kind of like the scam they have going on with unemployment numbers. To get a real picture, you have to look at the U6. Likewise for the debt, you have to add in all of our unfunded liabilities. When you do this and project out a 100 years, the real number is around 100 trillion or so.
Project your car payment or mortage for 100 years and assume you make no payments on it- compounding the interest- and you also come up with a rediculously huge number. Does this mean you are not going to make payments on your car or house in 100 years? Will you actually owe a couple million on that car? It is unfunded- you don't have the money to pay it all off right now which is why you borrowed the money for it.

For this year, Social Security "and other payroll" taxes were estimated to be $940 billion and Social Security expenditures for this year were $695. Does this mean that we have a $ trillion shortfall in Social Security? No.

[tangent4ronpaul]

For this year, Social Security "and other payroll" taxes were estimated to be $940 billion and Social Security expenditures for this year were $695. Does this mean that we have a $ trillion shortfall in Social Security? No.

"and other payroll" taxes - kinda obfuscates the numbers.

The SSA did send out that letter a little while back saying that by 2025 or somewhere there abouts that SSA would not be broke, but would only be able to pay out ~70% of what people were owed - in short, start saving because social security won't cover your retirement.

The train wreck of Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare is probably going to happen sooner.

-t

[Danke]

What's this "we" stuff? I don't owe anybody anything. I've paid all the bills I contracted for. Did you sign some sort of paper promising to pay off the nation debt? I musta missed that one.

This.

[jclay2]

Project your car payment or mortage for 100 years and assume you make no payments on it- compounding the interest- and you also come up with a rediculously huge number. Does this mean you are not going to make payments on your car or house in 100 years? Will you actually owe a couple million on that car? It is unfunded- you don't have the money to pay it all off right now which is why you borrowed the money for it.

For this year, Social Security "and other payroll" taxes were estimated to be $940 billion and Social Security expenditures for this year were $695. Does this mean that we have a $ trillion shortfall in Social Security? No.

Of course I don't think that the 100 trillion dollar level is ever going to be met. Our country will default/inflate far before that. It just goes to show how inevitable the situation is. All there is to answer is the timing. Could be in the next 5 or the next 20, who knows?