Asking About the 72 Trillion Pound Elephant
by Mike Thompson

A 72-trillion-pound elephant is in the room and we have a patriotic duty to acknowledge him before he devours our economy, crushes the quality of our health care and destroys our retirement security.

According to the 2004 Social Security Trustees report the unfunded long-term obligations of Social Security and Medicare amount to $72 trillion. The total bill for current and future taxpayers breaks down as follows: $21.8 trillion from Medicare Part A; 23.2 trillion from Medicare Part B; $16.6 trillion from the new Medicare prescription drug benefit; and $10.4 trillion from Social Security.

It's highly unlikely that either party will mention the $72 trillion figure in any of their 30-second-sound bytes, because there is no immediate political gain in raising the issue.

To put $72 trillion into perspective: On July 15, at luncheon event in the Rayburn House Office Building of the U.S. Capitol, Social Security Trustee Thomas R. Saving told an audience that Congress would have to devote "73 percent of all income taxes from now until eternity" in order to pay for the two entitlement programs.

Repeating a warning from the 2004 Social Security Trustees report, Saving said these two programs are expected to consume 1/4 of all federal income taxes by 2019, and added that he doesn't expect Congress or the American people to allow this to happen. When I questioned him after his talk, he told me that he believes tax increases are inevitable if America decides to pay for these entitlements as they exist now.

Referencing the former Soviet Union, he questioned whether Americans would still be willing to work under the future tax burden. Jokingly, I asked him whether it was time to move to a different country, and he said every country is facing similar demographic problems.

America's patients, retirees and taxpayers can't afford to wait 15 years before politicians are brave and honest enough to confront this crisis. Voters ought to ask politicians to propose fair, reasonable and specific solutions to this $72 trillion dilemma.

Social Security private accounts are a necessary -- but small -- step towards fixing this problem. These individual accounts would not address the debt from the retirees who are in the system now or the 70 million baby boomers who might retire before Congress agrees to allow these accounts. As mentioned earlier, projected Social Security spending only accounts for $10.4 trillion, with more than $60 trillion coming from projected Medicare spending.

We should use any and every opportunity to ask candidates and office holders to discuss the $72 trillion figure mentioned in the Trustee's report. Political candidates should not be allowed to gloss over this issue, simply because it's a sensitive subject in an election year. America's taxpayers, patients and retirees can't afford to give them this luxury.