Poor Advice - we need to freshen up economist gene pool

When a former economic adviser to Ronald Reagan claims that the US debt amounts to $211 trillion one has to wonder who ever believes a word uttered by a representative of that 'science'. Adding up all future entitlements and other spending to arrive at this gargantuan number is the same as adding an individual's expected lifetime spending and declaring that he was 'in debt' by the resulting amount. The number would not be pretty - not for anyone past or present. This type of facile calculation forgets completely that the spending would (hopefully) be paid for by future earnings. To forget the income (or tax) side of the equation is a mistake that no serious economist should ever make. It produces good (and alarmist) headlines only.