“Fiscal Cliff ???” We’ve already gone over it.

I’m sorry, this is not thoughtful discussion.  This is a rant.

You’ve all heard about our $15.96 trillion national debt (more than 100% of GDP), and the 2012 budget deficit of $1.1 trillion (6.97% of GDP).  In reality, you only know 1/5 the problem.  The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP.   To avoid going deeper into debt to pay just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the annual cash deficit would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually.

According to the most recent tax data, all individuals filing tax returns in America and earning more than $66,193 per year have a total adjusted gross income of $5.1 trillion. In 2006, when corporate taxable income peaked before the recession, all corporations in the U.S. had total income for tax purposes of $1.6 trillion. That comes to $6.7 trillion available if the government confiscated the entire adjusted gross income of these American taxpayers, plus all of the corporate taxable income in the year before the recession, which would not be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities.

If our politicians had to prepare our Federal financial statements the way they require public companies to report their pension liabilities, we humble citizens would see clearly the magnitude of the problem we have.  However, not only have they spent all the money they’ve collected for these programs as they collected it, they’ve hidden the liabilities they have created.

We all should be disgusted with the politicians, current and past, regardless of party, for creating this mess and then hiding it from us.  Instead, we hang on their every word and cheer for our party of choice as they maneuver themselves to point blame at the other side for the “fiscal cliff” we are facing.  In reality, we’ve already gone over the cliff…we just don’t know it…and we’re gaining ever more speed as we head down to the inevitable crash at the bottom.

This information was gleaned from the following article, if you wish to know more details, read it. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323353204578127374039087636.html?mod=googlenews_wsj