The Treasury Department's reported debt doesn't include the Social Security and Medicare liabilities. If those liabilities were included, a $30 trillion national debt amount was reached years ago. According to Truth in Accounting if those unfunded obligations are included today, the debt is more than $141 trillion. Please do your part and send a check to the US Treasury Department for $919,000 to cover your share. If every American taxpayer did that we would have enough money to pay off our current bonds and the funds needed to cover the Social Security and Medicare benefits that current retirees and workers have already been promised.
The reason the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board does not require Treasury to include the retirement benefits owed to our seniors in the reported debt is based upon the belief that Congress can change the law at any point in time and take away everyone's promised benefits. In 2007 the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration stated,
"An overriding uncertainty exists under the Social Security (and all Federal Social Insurance) programs. This is the Government’s right and ability to alter potential future benefits. Until benefits become due and payable, there is no binding commitment over which a worker has control and so no liability can be recognized.”
Source: Comments on “Accounting for Social Insurance, Revised Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards Preliminary Views,” Presented by Steve Goss, Chief Actuary, Social Security Administration, May 23, 2007, p.61 http://www.fasab.gov/pdffiles/si_publichearing_responses.pdf