balajis.com/p/americas-175-trillion-problem?open=false#%C2%A7bonus-will-ai-solve...
2 corrections found
The entire fedguv only collected ~$2T last year
Federal receipts were not about $2T. Treasury’s FY2023 financial statements show total budget receipts of about $4.44T.
Full reasoning
This figure is off by more than two trillion dollars. In the Treasury Department’s FY2023 Financial Report, the federal government’s total budget receipts for the year are listed as $4,439.3 billion—about $4.44 trillion, not “~$2T.”
So the post understates annual federal receipts by roughly half.
1 source
- Financial Statements of the United States Government for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2023, and 2022 — Statements of Changes in Cash Balance from Budget and Other Activities
Cash flow from budget activities: Total budget receipts 4,439.3 ... Total budget outlays (6,134.5) ... Budget deficit (1,695.2).
That’s actually the true debt of the USA, when you take all the entitlements into account, like Social Security and Medicare.
The $175.3T figure in the Treasury report is not the U.S. government’s “true debt.” It is an infinite-horizon social-insurance funding gap, and Treasury explicitly says such amounts are not liabilities in an accounting context.
Full reasoning
The Treasury document cited in the post does not describe $175.3 trillion as federal debt. In the report’s social-insurance section, the figure is labeled “present values of future costs less the present values of future income over the infinite horizon” for programs such as Social Security and Medicare. That is a long-range actuarial gap estimate, not a debt balance.
Treasury’s own explanation is explicit: amounts reported in the Statement of Social Insurance “are not considered liabilities in an accounting context.” The same FY2023 Financial Report’s balance sheet separately reports the federal government’s actual recognized liabilities at $42.9 trillion as of September 30, 2023.
So the post is conflating three different things:
- Recognized federal liabilities on the balance sheet;
- Future social-insurance projections under current-law assumptions; and
- The author’s own label of “true debt.”
Treasury’s report supports (2), not (3).
3 sources
- Required Supplementary Information (Unaudited) — Social Insurance, FY 2023 Financial Report
Present values of future costs less the present values of future income over the infinite horizon ... Total ... 175.3.
- Management’s Discussion & Analysis — Long-Term Fiscal Outlook
The amounts reported in the SOSI provide perspective on the Government’s long-term estimated exposures for social insurance programs. These amounts are not considered liabilities in an accounting context.
- Financial Statements of the United States Government for the Fiscal Years Ended September 30, 2023, and 2022 — Balance Sheets
Total liabilities 42,898.3 ... As with reported assets, the government’s responsibilities, policy commitments, and contingencies are much broader than these reported Balance Sheet liabilities. They include the social insurance programs reported in the SOSI.