Unfunded Liabilities

[citizenzen]

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates (2004) families will spend on average between $134,370 to $284,460 to raise a child from birth through age 17.

If we lived our personal life as some conservatives want to run our government, nobody should have a child without these funds in the pipeline. Likewise, nobody should buy a home with anything less than cash on hand.

Even something as simple as groceries can create a fiscal crisis. I just figured out that over the next 30 years I have over $180,000 in unfunded grocery liabilities!

I'd better start cutting services to the poor.

 

[Devil505]

I gotta admit....it's more fun when the GOP runs government. (we don't even discuss boring stuff like..."How do we pay for that?'....We investigate steroid use in MLB "Flag Burning"....fun stuff!)

 

[citizenzen]

...we don't even discuss boring stuff like..."How do we pay for that?'....

How do parents pay for a child? They budget, they plan, they prioritize. They figure out what is important in their lives and then find a way to make it work.

This scare tactic employed by the right to make Social Security and Medicare appear unaffordable is a fallacious argument. If we want to make those programs a priority, then they can be afforded... just like my groceries.

 

[GenSeneca]

If we lived our personal life as some conservatives want to run our government, nobody should have a child without these funds in the pipeline. Likewise, nobody should buy a home with anything less than cash on hand.

If you are a single person making $18,000/year, you shouldn't have 12 kids with 12 different women and be on the hook for $180,000/year in child support.

The 81% Tax Increase
Bruce Bartlett

To summarize, we see that taxpayers are on the hook for Social Security and Medicare by these amounts: Social Security, 1.3% of GDP; Medicare part A, 2.8% of GDP; Medicare part B, 2.8% of GDP; and Medicare part D, 1.2% of GDP. This adds up to 8.1% of GDP. Thus federal income taxes for every taxpayer would have to rise by roughly 81% to pay all of the benefits promised by these programs under current law over and above the payroll tax.

Since many taxpayers have just paid their income taxes for 2008 they may have their federal returns close at hand. They all should look up the total amount they paid and multiply that figure by 1.81 to find out what they should be paying right now to finance Social Security and Medicare.

To put it another way, the total unfunded indebtedness of Social Security and Medicare comes to $106.4 trillion. That is how much larger the nation's capital stock would have to be today, all of it owned by the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, to generate enough income to pay all the benefits that have been promised over and above future payroll taxes. But the nation's total private net worth is only $51.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. In effect, we have promised the elderly benefits equal to more than twice the nation's total wealth on top of the payroll tax.

Of course, theoretically, benefits could be cut to prevent the necessity of a massive tax increase. But how likely is that? The percentage of the population that benefits from Social Security and Medicare is growing daily as the baby boom generation ages and longevity increases. And the elderly vote in the highest percentage of any age group, so their political influence is even greater than their numbers.

The reality, which absolutely no one in either party wishes to face, is that benefits are never going to be cut enough to prevent the necessity of a massive tax increase in the not-too-distant future. Those who think otherwise are either grossly ignorant of the fiscal facts, in denial, or living in a fantasy world.

An 81% tax increase? Who wouldn't love that!?

This scare tactic employed by the right to make Social Security and Medicare appear unaffordable is a fallacious argument. If we want to make those programs a priority, then they can be afforded... just like my groceries.

Sure, all you need are massive, economy killing, tax increases and we can live in a veritable Progressive Utopia of cradle to grave entitlement programs... Just like the island paradise of Cuba.

 

[pocketfullofshells]

If you are a single person making $18,000/year, you shouldn't have 12 kids with 12 different women and be on the hook for $180,000/year in child support.


An 81% tax increase? Who wouldn't love that!?


Sure, all you need are massive, economy killing, tax increases and we can live in a veritable Progressive Utopia of cradle to grave entitlement programs... Just like the island paradise of Cuba.

go tell the kids that.

 

[Devil505]

How do parents pay for a child? They budget, they plan, they prioritize. They figure out what is important in their lives and then find a way to make it work.

This scare tactic employed by the right to make Social Security and Medicare appear unaffordable is a fallacious argument. If we want to make those programs a priority, then they can be afforded... just like my groceries.

& they only make that argument when the Dems run things. When they're in cointrol the most important problems facing this nation are steroid use in MLB & flag burning!