Federal debt falling due

The federal debt is about $12.7 trillion, but additional trillions have been promised to qualified recipients of Social Security, Medicare and other programs. The government is not collecting nearly enough in taxes and other revenue to pay for the programs, and these unfunded obligations including the federal debt are estimated to be $64 trillion, which amounts to about $500,000 debt for the average American family.

Each year, the surplus from Social Security payments is spent by the government instead of being saved for future entitlements. The federal government is playing a massive con game when it collects your Social Security taxes and spends the money for its own purpose, accounting for it in trust funds that are largely fiction.

Hopefully, the president and Congress will find some common ground and have the courage and guts to make the hard choices of reform necessary to fully fund Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements and start paying down the federal debt before our country is so hopelessly bankrupt. A law should be passed requiring the federal government to balance the budget every year like states are required to do.

Larry L. Whitesitt

Fairfield