Hidden U.S. Debt Bombs Affecting National Security
OPS_admin | Mar 19, 2010 | Comments 0
America’s fiscal situation may be much worse than the general public even realizes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has said that the nation’s debt is not only an economic issue, but a national security issue as well.
At nearly $13 trillion, with much of that owned to foreign governments, the national debt is completely unsustainable, however, according to CNNMoney.com, due to budgetary tricks and gimmicks, America’s fiscal situation may be much worse than the general public even realizes.
One of the nation’s biggest expenditures left unaccounted for are the unfunded obligations to Social Security and Medicare. By 2037, the Social Security trust fund, which has been raided numerous times over the years to pay for other programs, is expected to only be able to cover a portion of the promised benefits. That could happen to Medicare as early as 2017.
The cost of losses that government-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are piling up are not accounted for either. As government-sponsored entities, the federal government is obligated to cover the costs of the companies losses, to a certain point. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that those losses could total $370 billion by 2020.
Full Story: Hidden U.S. Debt Bombs Affecting National Security | Economy In Crisis.
Filed Under: Economy - Labor
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. 
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