Cato Institute estimates US Total Debt: $120 Trillion... or $400,000 per person

"(T)he principle of spending money to be paid by posterity in the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Certain politicians say Social Security is just fine, thank you very much, and there is no need to address the gap between income and outgo for another 20 years, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Others warn something had better be done right now or our children and grandchildren are doomed to an inevitable economic collapse.

And, no, taxing the rich instead of cutting government spending will not solve the problem. Michael Tanner, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute, writes that there simply aren't enough rich with enough wealth to cover the gap.

"But even if one assumes that taxes can be raised without having any impact on economic growth, taxing the rich still wouldn't get us out of our budget hole -- because the hole is quite simply bigger than the amount of revenue we could raise from taxing the rich even if there were no disincentives," Tanner writes in a Cato policy analysis titled, "Bankrupt: Entitlements and the Federal Budget."

"To put it in admittedly oversimplified perspective: our current obligations, including both implicit and explicit debt, total more than 900 percent of GDP. The combined wealth of everyone in the United States who earns at least $1 million per year equals roughly 100 percent of GDP. Therefore, you could confiscate the entire wealth of every millionaire in the United States and still barely make a dent in the amount we will owe."

Tanner estimates the nation's total debt -- including unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security -- is $119.5 trillion -- $400,000 per capita. (read more)