BCT Editorial – 5/4/06

This page was last updated on May 4, 2006.

Debt relief; Editorial; Beaver County Times; May 4, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Here are some numbers to give you some idea as to the magnitude of the debt we are piling on future Americans. They come from three opinion pieces that appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday.

“- The unfunded promises for Social Security and Medicare break down to $156,000 for every single American.

“- Meeting long-term federal commitments and contingencies will cost $46 billion, or $375,000 for every full-time worker in America.

“- Last year, the federal deficit was about $318 billion on a cash basis. (Money in and money out.) But when it is calculated on an accrual basis, which takes into account future obligations, it was $760 billion.

“- The federal government spends $23,760 a household, a post-World War II high.

“- Current federal spending represents 20 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Because of entitlement obligations to the baby boom generation, it will increase to nearly 36.5 percent of GDP.

“- To meet these obligations, taxes would have to approach 30 percent of GDP. The current level is 18 percent of GDP.

“That is the mess we are passing on to future generations. They deserve better than that.”

[RWC] The sole point of this critique is to point out the very first paragraph. Rather than cite authoritative sources, this editorial uses other “opinion pieces” to supply allegedly factual data. I don’t know if the figures are accurate or not, but isn’t it pretty risky to quote figures from opinion columns? On the other hand, perhaps the risk isn’t that much greater than trusting what we read in alleged news stories.