NC’s Real Debt – and the Nation’s

An article in the Wall Street Journal today again reminds us of the real U.S. debt — and the real financial burden NC imposes on taxpayers.

To look at NC, let’s turn to a study earlier this year from the Institute for Truth in Accounting. It analyzed the real financial liabilities of all the states, and assets too. It concluded that in North Carolina each state taxpayer’s financial burden is $14,800. That puts the Tar Heel State 35th in the nation — and as news reports make clear, few of the other states are paragons of financial stability and acumen.

So what does that mean for you?

Imagine getting the mail at your home. There’s an envelope from the state of North Carolina. You open it. It says you owe the state $14,800.

What would you think?

That’s the real, but little-told, story of what North Carolina is facing.

Washington can bail us out? Um, no.

The WSJ authors note the federal government doesn’t like to tell us the truth. The many stories about the national debt are horrifying enough. But that figure fails to include big debts such as Medicare and Social Security liabilities, which are kept out of the headlines, and the facts are buried federal documents. The  dig into the documents, and get the real figures: They conclude: “The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees’ future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion.”

That’s more than five times the entire Gross Domestic Product.

Let’s say that somehow the nation, instead of running trillion-dollar deficits, began running $1 trillion surpluses. Great, huh?

Putting this in a very simple form, the debt could then be paid off in 86 years.

Think of it.

Or thinking of opening another letter, this one from the IRS. It has a bill saying that, as a taxpayer, your share of the national debt  is $641,791.

How would you pay that?

Think about it.