John C. Goodman
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• If today’s seniors get everything that’s been promised to them, they can expect to receive $12.8 trillion in Social Security and Medicare benefits beyond the estimated taxes and premiums that will be collected to fund those programs.

• If these promises to the elderly are counted as official obligations, federal liabilities would climb to $30.3 trillion — about twice the size of our entire economy.

• If we also include promises being made to all the young people who are currently paying (FICA) payroll taxes, the total climbs to nearly $84 trillion.

Bottom line: we taxpayers owe a great deal. In fact, we owe about five-and-a-half times what the government officially admits.

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John C. Goodman

John C. Goodman is president and founder of the National Center for Policy Analysis, research fellow at The Independent Institute, and author of the forthcoming book Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis. Goodman’s ideas on health policy can also be found at his own blog, where he provides daily analysis and lively discussion on a wide range of health care topics.