Federal Government Debt Per Household? $546,668

And add in another $120,000 or so of personal debt. But, of course, that is debt people affirmatively, personally took on.

Stunning numbers.

This debt is made up of a mix of obligations, including Social Security, Medicare, and all of the unfunded obligations and guarantees the government makes. Obama isn't responsible for all of this; but he did just increase our obligations by a not-too-shabby twelve percent in just about 140 days.

Depending on the interest rate on this debt, it might take something like $25,000 per household, per year, for fifty years, to pay this off.

This highlights something. The biggest statist program ever enacted before were Social Security and Medicare. Previously, these programs, while huge, were doable because of favorable demographics -- there had, previously, been a lot of younger workers supporting a relatively small number of older retirees, so the cost per worker was manageable.

Because of the big shift in demographics, of course, this is now a very expensive program, with a relatively small number of younger workers supporting a huge number of older retirees.

So, the demographic check for FDR's programs are finally coming due in full.

At this moment, with the huge obligations imposed by FDR now coming due with a vengeance, the new FDR wants to impose huge new obligations.

The demographic bomb that is Social Security and Medicare is scary enough, and hard enough to manage. And yet Obama wants to tax an economy that's already straining to meet previous obligations with fresh ones.

Cap and Trade, Slash and Burn: The best case scenario is that Waxman's cap-and-tax system will impose new costs of $1600 per year per household.

And what do we get for that? Nothing. At best, assuming this works (and the European experience says it won't) we get a 4% drop in annual CO2 production, which is pretty much nothing at all, even if you subscribe to Al Gore level global warming panic.

Bear in mind the alarmists demand something like a 90% reduction in CO2 output in order to "save the earth." I've never heard it suggested that a mere 4% drop would do the trick.

In related new, no one making under $250,000 per year will pay "a dime" in new taxes. Obama said so, and I believe him. Because I'm stupid.

posted by Ace at 03:04 PM

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