Laurence Kotlikoff ~ Debt Crisis looming as Washington 'hides the real fiscal cliff numbers’

That's $200 trillion over next 75-years if severe changes are made. We are going to have to address the military budget, but we must also address the welfare and bureaucratic states. The over-65 demographic is wealthiest in the country. The avg. person over-65 has 14 times more assets than an individual that is 34 or younger. While there are older people that have been made totally dependent on these programs, there are millions of seniors that can pay their own freight.

Laurence Kotlikoff: Well, we economists look at all the bills the government has to pay, and in the US case we have enormous bills that have been kept off the books. They’re not the official debts, but they are very real. For example, paying me my social security benefits, my old-age pension – that’s a real obligation. It’s not part of the official government debt, but it’s very important because there are 78 million baby boomers who’re going to get their social security payments, and, in addition, medical payments from the government. If you look at all those payments, they are about $3 trillion a year. So we have these huge bills, nobody has thought about paying for them, and Congress and the presidents over the years have just focused on official debt, and basically have not told the public about these big bills.