Debts to Pay

If we were to sell every house in America and pay off the mortgages, the money left over wouldn't be enough to pay off the Medicare gap. If fact we'd need three times that much money to cover the expected shortfall.

Thomas G. Dolan writes in Barron's this week that we'd only get $11.9 trillion with a "t" from our home equity (and that was way back at the end of '07 when houses were worth something) but the gap between Medicare expenses and revenue over the next 75 years will add up to a whoppin' $38.6 trillion with a "t". And that's before inflation, which for as long as anyone can remember has been higher for medical costs than it has been for the economy as a whole.

Pretty scary thought for all you college kids out there who were expecting Medicare in yer old age.

Something's got to give. I fear that no one inside the Beltway has the will or the talent to do anything about it.