U.S. federal obligations now in trillions

WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- Lifelong obligations for the U.S. government -- payments that cover anyone living now -- reached $57.3 trillion in 2007, financial analysts said.

The official federal deficit is $162 billion but the figure doesn't include Medicare, Social Security or pension benefits adjusted to reflect payments over expected lifetimes. Unlike corporate reporting, the official deficit only covers future obligations for one year, USA Today reported Monday.

"We're running deficits in the trillions of dollars, not the hundreds of billions of dollars we're being told," Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Truth in Accounting of Chicago Sheila Weinberg told the newspaper.

In 2007, federal obligations for those alive today jumped $1.2 trillion for Medicare costs, $900 billion for Social Security and $106 billion for civil servant retirement.

The total, using corporate reporting standards, rose by rose by $2.5 trillion last year and now amount to $500,000 per household, USA Today said.