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  • August 27, 2008 02:50 PM EDT by Brian Sullivan

    America's Massive I.O.U.

    The Pete Peterson Foundation is making headlines with the promotion of the new documentary I.O.U.S.A. It's the film that is meant to do for bad fiscal policy and debt what An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming by calling attention to what the organization believes is the greatest crisis facing Americans in the coming decades: America's massive debt load and financial mismanagement.

    According to the Foundation and U.S. Government statistics the total federal burden facing America is more than $52 trillion dollars.  That's trillion, with a 't.'   And while the numbers ultimately are complicated, the idea is not.   Simply put, what the government is spending on entitlement programs, health care, defense, pensions and other obligations far outstrips what it is bringing in.   In short, we owe.    A lot.

    According to the General Accounting Office, that $52 trillion dollar bill breaks down to $175,000 for every man, woman and child.   Since it includes non-taxpaying childen, the actual per household burden works out to be $455,000.

    Programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up the bulk of the problem.   About 42% of the Federal budget goes to these programs.   Each has its own crisis.  Social Security needs to fund the Boomers, of whom an average of 10,000 per day will become eligible for benefits over the next twenty years.   Taxpayers also pay for one-third of the country's medical bills through Medicare and Medicaid, and since Medicare began in 1965 the federal share of that bill has tripled.

    Peterson Foundation's President and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker notes that unless the government gets its fiscal house in order and begins either cutting costs or raising revenues dramatically (or both) in the next decade, the country faces what he calls a "fiscal cancer."

    Thursday on Fox Business, tune in to watch my interview with David.  I ask him not just about the sizeable problem, but also about possible solutions and what it will take to get out of this fiscal mess.   Be sure to watch, or catch it on Foxbusiness.com

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Kathleen Sullivan

What time will your IOUSA interview with Dave Wlaker be broadcast? Is it online, on TV, on radio? I'd like to listen in.

August 27, 2008 at 3:43 pm

Doug

I hope it doesn't do what an Inconvenient Truth did: Lie, distort, mislead, and over-hype an unconfirmed trend into a crusade. Unlike Global Warming, there really is solid data that points to an impending fiscal crisis. May I suggest a better analogy next time?

August 27, 2008 at 9:02 pm

allan

We can get our fiscal house in order if we keep our federal government annual percentage budget increases low, say 2%. Promote low taxes all around and hope for good tax revenue once the economy rebounds more. We need budget hawks in Congress not spending GURUS.

August 28, 2008 at 10:40 am

Dana Swan

All combined debts in the USA, Federal, State, City, Corporate and personal, have been rising at a combined anual rate of about 9% a year since 1980. The GPD growth has been about 4% growth during that time. There WILL be a day of reckoning...........

August 28, 2008 at 11:09 am

Dana Swan

Brian, this is a great article. We need to focus on the Cause of the unbridled debt. Since the oil shocks of the 1970's, the true cost of living has been higher than increases in working wages. USA families had to have the spouse go to work to make ends meet in the 80's the money pinch got so bad by the 2000's that families were using their credit cards and house equity loans to pay regular bills. With credit curtailed, the bankrupsies are soaring. Look at States and cities that have continually used bond issues to pay for nearly everything instead of tax dollars. The federal government has financed the 2 wars so far and other programs such as social security have had their money used to pay bills and not saved $$ for the future. The USA has and is using debt to finace a life style they truly CAN'T AFFORD. We need to drop back to a sustianable level and pay down the debt. This is what happened to Japan in 1990..............

August 28, 2008 at 11:26 am

Steven

Dana Swan is spot-on! Fox would do a great service to our nation if they would repeatedly show Brian's interview on all their channels. Part of our problem is that people are uninformed about the fiscal state of our country. Well let's be honest, the vast majority of Americans are uninformed about their own fiscal state. Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has been doing a great job of doing these interviews across the country and I sure wish him well. Thanks Brian.

August 28, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Ed Scott

The 2007 GDP was about $57,280 billion dollars (12 decimal places). A debt of 52 trillion (9 decimal places) figures as less than 1% of this amount. I don't think we're headed for ruin quite yet.

August 28, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Wes

Yep - the numbers are dismal and they don't lie. The demographics are not too good either - an aging population looking at social security system that has been borrowed to the max and beyond. Looks just like the "0% down" mortgages that have cratered the real estate industry. Some real reform needs to be made soon to prevent a meltdown worse than Greenland.

August 28, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Mar

Like so many others who are watching our great country spiral downward into the debt ridden abyss, I sit here and think how this might have been avoided in the first place. Sadly, it always seems that greed-greed-greed is the by-word for those who prey on others. Long gone are the days of feeling secure financially for any retirement. Long gone are the days of where our government was for the people and doing right by them. Where were the safeguards from the government for protection and where were those in government who were supposed to do there job to prevent this financial crisis from occurring? Shame Shame

August 29, 2008 at 8:53 am

about this blog

  • Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block. Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.

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