Unfunded Promises, Unsustainable Spending

A recent article in USA Today detailed how the federal government "hides" billions of dollars of its debt by refusing to apply modern accounting practices.
According to the article "Rules ‘hiding’ trillions in debt," by Dennis Cauchon, the "official" debt accrued by the federal government in 2006 was $248 billion, a great improvement upon the actual $1.3 trillion debt, ($11,434 per household).
By not accounting for expenses when transactions take place, as a modern rule of accounting requires, the government handily ignores its promised funding for Social Security and Medicare. Of course, this debt accrues interest, making it more difficult and costly for the American people to repay it over time- $31,000 annually per household for 75 years, to be exact.
Luckily, the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Board is considering measures that will combine Medicare and Social Security with the rest of the government’s income statement, greatly alleviating the issue.