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To: ChanceIs who wrote (240949)	3/16/2010 7:52:33 PM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Future entitlement promises are political; debt is created by a debt instrument e.g. a Treasury bond. They are not the same thing. The gov't has altered Social Security, and it will do so again. Just four years ago, that's all we heard about from President Bush as the push to privatize SS was initiated by the elite which would have reduced benefits for the younger set by about 1/3. That day will still come of course, either through inflation (and a severely lagged Cola), delayed benefits, or reduced nominal benefits, increased taxes, or more likely, all of the above. In other words, the buying power of the benefits will shrink. Separately, the drag of paying US income tax receipts directly to foreign governments because of the trillions in bonds they hold will escalate to the kind of hurt the IMF likes to put on free wheeling third world nations. Yes, the entitlement promises are a growing problem and it's a lot of money but that doesn't make them debt.