scria, thats the official debt, the offbalance sheet from medicare,medicaid, social security was estimated by fed officials to be around $60 trillion. US would be insolvent if they kept their books like GE, but of course that money wont be paid, the government will 'default' by raising retirement age, cutting benefits so there is a case for the current accouting model but its not honest to the population to hide the facts behind the argument for the current accouting
You're preaching to the choir. Thats not 'off balance sheet debt' though; thats unfunded obligations. Congress/white house will be forced to fix those to-be accounting nightmare before they actually become what the comptroller/etc predicts. The govt can change its laws to change the future balance sheet. Reducing benefits and lowering taxes (or raising them) are all no different.
Isnt foreign ownership of debt a major issue. Rather than wealth being transferred within USA it is being paid overseas.