Chalk up yet another very significant accomplishment for Barry "Almighty" with it being made known that the Social Security program now faces $9.6 Trillion in unfunded liabilities over the next 75 years, which is up $1 Trillion from last year’s projection of $8.6 Trillion. That's according to the latest report from Social Security’s board of trustees. For those of you unfamiliar with what this means, the unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits.
The report entitled, The 2013 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds, provides the latest data through the end of 2012. The official title for Social Security is the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, and consists of retired workers, their families, and survivors of deceased workers who get monthly benefits under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance program and disabled workers and their families who get monthly benefits under the Disability Insurance program.
According to the report, "Through the end of 2087, the combined funds [OASI and DI] have a present-value unfunded obligation of $9.6 trillion." And that is "$1.0 Trillion more than the measured level of $8.6 Trillion a year ago," states the report, in reference to the data available for 2011. And in an effort to try to put that $9.6 Trillion shortfall into it's proper perspective, think about this, that amount would equal approximately $83,894 for every household in America, the number of which is based on the Census Bureau's latest estimate that there are now 114,430,000 households in this country.
But wait, hold on to your hats, because, my fellow taxpayers, it gets even worse. Because by, "[e]xtending the horizon beyond 75 years increases the measured unfunded obligation," according to the report. "Through the infinite horizon, the unfunded obligations, or shortfall, equals $23.1 trillion in present value, which represents 4.0 percent of future taxable payroll or 1.4 percent of future GDP." That $23.1 Trillion shortfall projection is up from the $20.5 Trillion projected shortfall in the 2012 report. Numbers this high, especially when talking about money, are difficult to comprehend.
And here's something that may make the amount of money that's be talked about a little easier to picture. You see, according to the World Bank, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States in 2011 was $15094.0 Billion, which represented about 24.35 percent of the world economy. "Projected long-range costs for both Medicare and Social Security are not sustainable with currently scheduled financing and will require legislative action to avoid disruptive consequences for beneficiaries and taxpayers," the report also reads.
So you can see that the size of the hole that we've managed to dig for ourselves, and are in fact determined to keep frantically digging even deeper, becomes all the more apparent, and pretty quickly, when going over these mindboggling numbers. And how anybody, regardless of their political affiliation, can think that this is anywhere near being a good idea, just does not make any sense. And yet we all go blissfully about our business, totally oblivious to what it is that's, quite literally, not only hanging over our heads, but the heads of our children and our children's children. It's a freakin nightmare!
No comments:
Post a Comment