Question: Government accounting rules for corporations require that the present value of pensions and other long-term liabilities be included in their annual reports and on their balance sheets. Several airlines and steel companies became insolvent partly because of these liabilities and went through bankruptcy. In Fall of 2007, General Motors got the UAW to accept responsibility for GM's retiree health care fund to get this less than fully funded liability off GM's books. Why doesn't the federal government add the present value of its long-term liabilities for Social Security and Medicare to its budget reports each year?