The cost of the American form of government is lost to concealing reality by cooking the books. Not all of the obligations are recorded as incurred and revenues are recorded in advance of being earned resulting in understating the cost of governance and overstating the amount of revenue collected for any period of time due to timing differences. The only source of information to answer the great questions are embodied in the debt clock (www.debtclock) maintained by the US Camber of Commerce in New York city. It calculates the expenditures, tax receipts on a generally accepted accounting method called generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) or accrual method. Instead of the annual deficit for 2019 being $3 trillion it is $ 18 trillion and the debt being $22 trillion is $123 trillion accruing unrecorded obligations that apply to the 2019 tax period. Are you saying that the debt is $145 trillion as of the end of 2019 and our Federal government lost $18 trillion in one year ... that's what the debt clock estimates the financial position of America is the debt exceeds the GNP and the net worth of Americans assets by $100 trillion dollars on any given day. How can this be ... well, for example, the obligation for the 22 million State and Federal government employee pensions is not recorded until paid out to the retired employee by deferring unrecorded obligations ... the same for social security, Medicare and numerous other budgetary obligations that aren't booked until paid. Does this mean we are insolvent ... yes using GAAP accounting the books are cooked if growth in GNP doesn't keep up with paying obligations and America defaults on its interest payments.
