America's fucked.

[Liquid Blue]

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_b...0409080940.asp

By the CBO’s reckoning, the federal government’s true debt last year was $8.5 trillion — more than twice the debt held by the public, which we generally think of as the national debt. That figure came to $4 trillion, only slightly more than the $3.9 trillion in future benefits owed to government employees and veterans.

Even with discounting, however, the figures are massive. The CBO estimates the unfunded liability for Social Security at $7.2 trillion. But this is virtually nothing next to the $37.6 trillion cost of Medicare. In short, we would need to have about $45 trillion in the bank today earning interest in order to pay all the promises that have been made for future Social Security and Medicare benefits — over and above the future taxes and premiums that will be collected to fund these programs.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but we're fucked. In my next post I'll c/p what I got from Yahoo.

[Liquid Blue]

442 Billion Federal Deficit projected by CBO-The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that this election-year's federal deficit will reach $422 billion, congressional aides said Tuesday, the highest ever, yet a smaller shortfall than analysts predicted earlier this year. The number was being released later Tuesday in the annual summertime forecast issued by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The projection by Congress' nonpartisan budget analysts would surpass last year's $375 billion shortfall, the current record. When adjusted to erase the effects of inflation, the 2004 projected deficit exceeds the value of every annual shortfall since World War II.Tuesday's CBO estimate should prove fairly accurate because the federal budget year, which runs through Sept. 30, has less than one month to go. The government is expected to spend about $2.3 trillion this year, which means it will be borrowing about one of every five dollars it spends.

In a preliminary report in early August, the budget office said it expected this year's shortfall to hit $422 billion. That was an improvement from its $477 billion forecast in January, a revision the office attributed mostly to stronger than anticipated revenue collections. Just last month, the White House forecast a $445 billion deficit for this year, though administration officials acknowledged the figure could be too high because of overestimates for spending.

Tidbit-Whatever the short-term deficits, most analysts agree the budget picture will worsen considerably within the coming decade. That is when the huge baby boom generation will begin relying increasingly on Social Security (news - web sites) and Medicare, driving those programs costs upward.

News brought to you by yahoo.com

[za gophar]

man i hope that is true, finally something interesting will happen around here

[Galleleo]

bla bla bla, holland is better bla bla bla ( paul)

[Rogue]

bla bla bla, holland is better bla bla bla ( paul)

Don't alot of homosexuals live in Holland?

[Galleleo]

nah it just looks that way because here they are free to marry and stuff, so they are not afraid to admit they are homo's, america just has alot of opressed homo's afraid to admit they are.

[Rogue]

lol, what the hell?....how did you reply that fast? bah america does suck ...I'm going back to China

[Galleleo]

China is the new worldpower to come.

[scumbag]

What is it about the Free World that pisses everybody else off!

[Mr. Peanuts]

Jealousy of those less fortunate.

They call it religion.

[Liquid Blue]

Isn't something like half of the world's population in china?

[Golden Sun 1]

Isn't something like half of the world's population in china?

i dont think tht there are about 3-4 billion chinese around...though it's the most widely spoken language

[Dameon Angell]

Its funny how some people take what Yahoo! says and take it like a Bible.

[Galleleo]

there are 1.4 billion people living in China

[Epinephrine]

Its funny how some people take what Yahoo! says and take it like a Bible.

Try this then:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5771&type=1

-Epi