whidbey

A Look at US Debt Levels as a Percentage of GDP

Yes SSec is left off the chart, as is Medicare in all of its parts, as is the sums now payable to citizens contributing to the two social programs.It totals about 40 Trillion dollars, if you want to see the whole. Then you fail to mention that the capacity to pay taxes is seriously limited by the personal debt levels in America. The average family has debts of all kinds totaling about 7K, not including mortgages or car loans. The point is, the capacity to pay taxes is decreased by the amount of free cash flow each household has available. In general there is NO free cash flow for added taxes, or even current taxes. We will see more handouts, tax forgiveness and denuding of the savers over the next decade. In the end we will be a rogue state in the world economy and poor, very poor.