The $175T number is unfair because it treats Social Security and Medicare/aid as a liability instead of the service that they are. You might as well say the US is in infinite debt, because we'll always be paying something for our military every year, so infinity years * any dollars = infinite debt.

Also: All of those numbers you use to scare people are way, way off.

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> it treats Social Security and Medicare/aid as a liability instead of the service that they are

It's a liability because the U.S. has promised to pay it. We haven't committed to a level of military spending backed by our full faith and credit.

EDIT: Never mind! Apparently we can just cut social security payments.

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sarchertech 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The NATO treaty says that we have to maintain our ability to resist armed attack, so there is some minimum. And we’ve made public commitments to spend at least 2% of GDP (though that isn’t part of the treaty).

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JumpCrisscross 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Neither of those are full faith and credit guarantees. Congress can nullify them in a way it Constitutionally cannot actual debts.

	▲	sarchertech 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		SS and Medicare aren’t debts either in that sense. Congress can reduce benefits if they please. In Flemming v. Nestor SCOTUS ruled that SS benefits are not guaranteed contractual rights but are instead statutory entitlements that Congress may modify or revoke.