Contrary to government estimates of $18 trillion, the current balance on the federal “credit card” is $81 trillion, according to the nonprofit group Truth in Accounting.
The group released a “U.S. Taxpayers’ Credit Card Statement” Monday detailing the unfunded promises that the United States government has made to taxpayers. Combining Social Security promises, Medicare promises, and other liabilities, the total comes out to $80.9 trillion.
“We need to either bring more money in or take less money out,” Sheila Weinberg, the group’s founder and CEO, told the Washington Examiner. “By hiding the true cost of government and the true debt, the citizens really don’t have the information that they need to be knowledgeable participants in their government.” Weinberg compared the situation to a married couple where one spouse thinks the couple is slightly in debt, but the other spouse runs up their credit card debt without the other spouse’s knowledge.
Almost half of the federal government’s current balance comes from unfunded Medicare promises. Social Security makes up the next largest portion of the balance, at 35 percent.
The federal government gets away with masking the true cost of its liabilities by claiming it can change the laws that create those liabilities at any time, the group says. While that’s true, changes in the near future are unlikely, and it would make more sense to report liabilities as if current law will not change.
“While seniors are counting on the Social Security and Medicare benefits they have been promised, the federal government doesn’t count these liabilities in the reported debt amount,” Truth in Accounting’s report read. “Instead Congress and the President charge these promises to the ‘U.S. Taxpayer Credit Card.'”
