Is U.S. 2Trillion$ or 11Trillion$ in debt?

Economics Economics Questions
1

Hi Everyone…

I always hear ob t.v. and such that U.S. in “only” 1.8 Trillion dollars in debt, GDP ratio… you know.

On the other hand, I also hear about numbers like 11 Trillion.



US Government Financial Summary

Amount


US Revenue for 12 months ended August 31, 2009

$2,157,940,000,000










Obligations4





Total Outstanding US Debt (August 31, 2009)

$11,812,870,150,873


Unfunded Social Security Trust Fund

$17,500,000,000,000


Unfunded Medicare Trust Funds

$89,300,000,000,000










TOTAL Obligations

$118,612,870,150,873

Are they 10 Trillion that are not in the official debt number (1.8 T)

Could anyone explain U.S. debt to me?

2

The ~2 trillion figure is the budget deficit, the amount of debt the US government will incur in this year alone.

The 11-12 trillion figure is the total debt the government has incurred over the years.

Then, when you add unfunded liabilities you get ridiculous figures like $100+ trillion.

3

Holy f***!
How are we not hearing more about the hundred trillion dollar figure??? Isnt that like half of what the entire country is worth???

4

If the government was forced to use the accounting standards it forces companies to use then yes, the federal government alone is 100+ trillion in debt. The number comes from unfunded liabilities for Social Security and Medicare. Basically, money that the government will have to spend in the future that it does not have on those two programs alone. I believe SS is already in the red.

The GDP (which is a terrible way to measure economic growth) is 14.4 trillion - so that’s more like 10 times what the entire country is worth going by GDP alone.

5

U.S. National Debt is currently at $11.8 trillion. This is a gross debt, and is the total debt between public debt (total amount of money owed by the U.S. Government to owners of U.S. debt instruments) and intragovernmental debt. Then, there is roughly $60 billion (and growing) in unfunded liabilities, which means stuff like medicare and medicaid and social security, which is welfare that will have to be paid, but not paid yet.

6

The sad thing is, those numbers will continue to grow larger as the government prints money to reduce its debt, thereby increasing its debt. The numbers will continue to grow, because the cost of medical care will increase with inflation, so those liabilities will be larger in the future.