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September 8, 2004
$72 Trillion of Invisible Debt
Holman Jenkins shows how large the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare have become in his column today. When politicians talk about the debt they conveniently leave out these numbers.
It would take $3.9 trillion today to retire the visible national debt, and $72 trillion today to pay off unfunded promises to retirees. Yet only the first debt is reported to voters. That's the kind of accounting "oversight" that, in the private sector, leads straight to a cellblock.
In addition he points out that if nothing is done for another 9 years another $18 trillion will be added to this total. One more reason that the transition to private accounts for younger workers should be done as soon as possible.
Arnold Kling has more details on his site.
Posted by Peter Mork at September 8, 2004 10:42 PM
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