Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – While Congress has voted to raise the national debt ceiling to $12.4 trillion, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that the federal government’s unfunded liabilities – the costs of promised benefits through Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and several other programs – total $62.9 trillion in today’s dollars.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) speaks outside the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo)

When asked about these costs and the government’s entitlement promises to the American people, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told CNSNews.com that it is “irresponsible” for the federal government to continue to spend money it does not have and that this issue will be the “most important thing” Congress will discuss next year.

“I said on the floor last night, American families can’t spend more than what they bring in for 36 of the last 40 years,” Boehner told CNSNews.com at his weekly briefing. “No business in America can exist that spends more than it brings in for 36 of the last 40 years, and certainly, our government can’t continue to exist if we continue to spend money that we don’t have.”

“This is irresponsible,” he said. “There needs to be a plan put in place that will bring our budget under control and in the green, and we need to find a way to begin paying down the national debt.


“This is probably the most important thing that you’re going to hear discussed here in Congress next year,” Boehner said, “how to get our arms around this and begin to make real progress on making sure that our kids and grandkids aren’t stuck with all of our bills.”

In its “Long Term Fiscal Outlook” report, the GAO states that “absent policy actions aimed at reforming the key drivers of our structural deficits – health spending and Social Security – the federal government faces unsustainable growth in debt. The longer that action to deal with the federal government’s long-term fiscal outlook is delayed, the greater the risk that the eventual changes will be disruptive and destabilizing.”

The White House has projected a record deficit of $1.5 trillion this year alone and a 5-year deficit total of $4.97 trillion. When there is a deficit, the Treasury has to borrow the necessary amount of money for the government to pay its bills.

According to the government Web site Treasurydirect.gov, the national debt is considered a collection of “accumulated deficits.” The federal government currently raised the debt ceiling from $12.1 trillion to $12.4 trillion to allow the federal government to spend more money.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said that to deal with this situation the government must either reform the entitlement programs or eventually impose massive tax increases on American workers.

“For the last 40 years, the federal government has had to tax every dollar made in America at 18.3 cents on that dollar to pay the bills of the federal government,” Ryan told CNSNews.com in a previous interview.

“By the time my three children – who are three, five and six years old—are my age, the federal government will have to tax 40 cents out of every dollar made in America just to pay the bills for the federal government at that time,” he said.

Ryan said these statistics are evidence that the government will ultimately go bankrupt.

“The problem that we have right now – putting foreign policy aside and our fight with Islamic radicalism – is that we have an economic crisis, we have a fiscal crisis, and, that is, we will bankrupt this country, and the best century in America will be the last century,” he said.

While speaking to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in July about the need to pass the Democrats’ health care plan, Vice President Joe Biden said the government must keep spending to avoid bankruptcy.

“Folks, look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” Biden said, concerning the current health care system in America. “It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially.

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,”

Biden said.
“Now, people, when I say that, look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

Source: CNS News.com, December 18, 2009
By: Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter