But the debt is much higher for Fairfield County residents. Here’s the breakdown:

Medicare:                                      $431,423

Social Security:                              $243,784

Federal Debt:                                 $  73,312

Military Benefits:                            $  43,708

State and Local Debt:                     $  29,637

Federal Civil Servants Benefits:         $  24,292

State and Local Retiree Benefits:      $  22,162

Other Federal Obligations:                $    4,306

Total:                                           $872,624

And for those readers with a household income greater than $125,000 per year----double the numbers.

This hidden debt is the amount taxpayers would have to pay immediately, to cover the government’s financial obligations. Like a mortgage, it would cost more to repay the debt over time. Fairfield County households would have to pay $66,250 a year to do so in 30 years.

But the White House argues that the programs are not true liabilities since the government can cancel or cut them. In other words, they can break their promises to us. It’s worth taking another look at the list to see which promises they plan to break.

Most people mistakenly believe that these social insurance “trust funds” implies a right to “earned benefits”.

But, all of the money we sent to Washington did not get invested in social security or Medicare trust funds, it got transferred to other spending programs. The Bush administration wrote in their FY2007 budget proposal, “These funds are not set up to be pension funds…are not assets…that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits…”

The Trustees Social Security and Medicare, in their “Message to the Public” last month estimates that payroll taxes will need to double in 15 years, and triple in 25 years to keep the programs solvent. Employer and employee payroll tax is  15.3% of income today of which social security is taxed only on the first $97,500, and since the average household income in Fairfield County is $71,633, we will feel the full brunt of these changes.

Payroll taxes hurt the middle class and small business most, and these actions will be devastating.

But why is there such callus disregard in solving this problem? Well, let’s look at the politics of it. By the time our entitlement programs require increasing taxes, most of our congressmen will be gone, and therefore have little at stake today. And we fell hook, line and sinker to the utopia of “free” healthcare and social security. Future generations will curse us for believing in this hype.

After having laid this enormous burden of broken promises on me and my children, I have only one question left for Congress.

If I were to sell all of my worldly possessions---my home, my cars, my furniture and clothes---if I were to cash in my retirement savings and my children’s college education fund, deplete my bank account, and somehow, by some miracle, come up with $872,624 to pay off my portion of the debt----will the government promise to leave me alone for the rest of my mortal life?