A palate cleanser via the Daily Caller dedicated to a very special man who’s still not worried that we’re headed for a double-dip recession. Anytime we write about the “raise my taxes!” crowd I feel obliged to remind them that they’re perfectly entitled to raise their own taxes whenever they like. Here’s the link; every dollar that goes towards paying down the national debt means a little extra tax revenue isn’t going towards interest payments and can therefore be applied elsewhere.

Give generously, kids, because guess what?

The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of financial promises not paid for.

This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product…

The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $534,000 per household. That’s more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else — mortgages, car loans and other debt. It reflects the challenge as the number of retirees soars over the next 20 years and seniors try to collect on those spending promises…

The government has promised pension and health benefits worth more than $700,000 per retired civil servant. The pension fund’s key asset: federal IOUs.

Medicare alone took on an extra $1.8 trillion in liabilities last year, but we’ll just have to come up with the money — unless, of course, you’re prepared to sit by and watch as Paul Ryan kills your grandma with his bare hands. You wouldn’t do that to grandma, would you?