After a couple of memorable weeks, where we have seen reality start to set in, and we start to face the bills of enjoying the present without considering the risks and fallout in the future, Bob Vineyard offered a helpful reminder of what’s still looming on the horizon:
If you think $700,000,000,000 is a lot of money to start to bail us out of the mortgage mess.
Or $85,000,000,000 plus another $37,000,000,000 for AIG is disgusting.
Try this on for size.
$85 TRILLION.
That is the estimated unfunded liability for Medicare.
In other words, promised benefits and no money in the bank to pay those bills.
A troubling thought has been bouncing around in the back of my mind. With the acceleration of the deficit from bailouts announced and expected, plus the drag caused by borrowing to pay back the federal IOU’s in the Medicare trust fund, and the extra drag coming in a few years when similar action is required for Social Security….
Is it possible that the U.S. is bankrupt, but we haven’t realized it yet?
