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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (17014)	4/19/2010 8:50:26 AM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

You totally do not understand the concept. Actually I understand it just fine...and let's keep in in the context of SS and Medicare OK? ... where changes in benefit alone would alter the nature and magnitude of that liability. wiki.answers.com a debt is a subcategory of liabilities. so when you have a debt, you automatically have a liability....if you have a liability, you dont necessarily have a debt... Al

To: i-node who wrote (17014)	4/19/2010 1:51:01 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

An "unfunded liability" is not a "future liability" and it is not a "potential debt". A liability of any kind is a debt as of RIGHT NOW. Except there is no property right to future Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid payments. A single act of congress could cancel all future spending on the programs. In the government's term of art describing spending they are "mandatory" and "not discretionary", but by the ordinary English meaning of the word the payments are discretionary, so they aren't debt. The money isn't "owed today" for payment in the future, it isn't owed at all. OTOH they are very hard to cut, so the practical effect is similar to that of debt. If I don't owe you a penny but I'm in the habit of sending you a check for $500 every month, than unless I'm rich, or I figure I will change the habit, I better pay a lot of attention to that habit when considering my personal budget.