According to USA Today, this $546,668 per Household in federal obligations represents a 12% increase or an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt, and other government promises.

USA Today reports that key federal obligations are:

• Social Security. It will grow by 1 million to 2 million beneficiaries a year from 2008 through 2032, up from 500,000 a year in the 1990s, its actuaries say. Average benefit: $12,089 in 2008.
• Medicare. More than 1 million a year will enroll starting in 2011 when the first Baby Boomer turns 65. Average 2008 benefit: $11,018.
•Retirement programs. Congress has not set aside money to pay military and civil servant pensions or health care for retirees. These unfunded obligations have increased an average of $300 billion a year since 2003 and now stand at $5.3 trillion. . . .
That’s quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.
“We have a huge implicit mortgage on every household in America — except, unlike a real mortgage, it’s not backed up by a house,” says David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, the government’s top auditor.”

Read the whole thing here.

Obviously, the $100 billion savings proposed by President Obama won’t address this problem and his promise to spend billions on health-care and energy reforms won’t help either. So now what?