USA Today:

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year - far more than the official $248 billion deficit - when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss - equal to $11,434 per household - is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006….

Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.

And we got plenty of that, too.

The government may ultimately be forced to use the same accounting standards corporations do, but both the White House and Congressional Budget Office oppose that, saying the programs  “are not true liabilities because government can cancel or cut them.”

Right.

It seems to me that if the Democrats are to be the party of the future - rather than merely representing the latest, shiniest version of the same old - then fiscal responsibility absolutely has to be a lynchpin of that. Fiscal responsibility would mean getting this under control; restructuring Social Security, perhaps, something only Democrats could do as the further-right elements of the Republican Party have long wanted to do away with Social Security entirely, and thus the GOP cannot be trusted to craft a solution that isn’t intended to first eviscerate.

There’s a lot to be concerned about in this situation, but an opportunity as well. Would that those who would replace the current rot in Washington would both see it and seize it.