Intragovernmental Holdings Continue To Soar
"Federal law requires that all excess funds be invested in interest-bearing securities backed by the full faith and credit of the United States."Any "excess" funds that are held in the Social Security Trust Fund, Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and others are automatically lent to the government to fund their ongoing operations. In essence, these funds have interest-bearing "IOUs" (in the case of the Social Security Trust Fund, an IOU of over $2.5 trillion) from the United States government.
These IOUs are called "Intragovernmental holdings", and as of April 25th, these intragovernmental holdings totalled roughly $5 trillion ($4,990,014,819,965.70 to be exact). Combine these intragovernmental holdings with the $12.446 trillion that is owed to everyone else (American investors, foreign investors, hedge funds, pension funds, etc) and you have a total national debt load of $17.43 trillion.
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As of March 31st, 2014, the federal government owed at least $100 billion to these entities:
Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund - $195,892,000,000
Department of Defense, Medicare Eligible Retiree Fund - $198,573,000,000
Department of Defense Military Retirement Fund - $482,729,000,000
Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund - $821,893,000,000
Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund - $2,676,216,000,000
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Intragovernmental holdings have increased from roughly $3 trillion to $5 trillion since March 31st, 2004, while "debt held by the public" has soared from $4.17 trillion to $12.446 trillion.
Source: TreasuryDirect.gov - Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States (*.pdf)
Filed under: General Knowledge
