Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Government Official Warned on US Economy in 2007

QUICK VIEW
  • Prior to 2007, as Head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) David Walker said that the U.S. economy was unsustainable and made some remarkable claims regarding fiscal irresponsibility
  • David Walker runs investigative arm of congress
  • Walker believed that the biggest peril facing the nation was being ignored
  • Walker argued that current standard of living was unsustainable
  • Walker called it the dirty little secret that in Washington everyone knew
  • He concluded that politicians were guilty of fiscal irresponsible
  • After trying to argue his case, he gave up on elected officials and took to the streets to present the facts
  • He embarked on what he called a "Fiscal Wake Up Tour"
  • Walkers compares the fiscal irresponsibility to charging expenditure to a credit card and expecting our grandchildren to pay for it
  • Argues that we are living in fiscal denial
  • The Government has committed itself to massive entitlement programs that we cannot afford
  • 78 million baby boomers reached sixty-two and started retiring in 2008
  • Walkers maintains that the status quo was a tsunami ready to swamp the republic
  • Biggest challenges are social care and Medicare
  • Heath care problem is much more significant than social security
  • When Medicare was expanded in 2005 by including prescription drug coverage, Walker regarded the move as fiscally irresponsibe
  • The new legislation would extend debt to over eight trillion dollars in the near future
  • The country cannot afford the promises that it has made
  • The system is unsustainable
  • Can expect people to disagree, but hardly anyone does except for a small group of economists that say that problem overstated
  • Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that growth alone is unlikely to solve the country's fiscal challenges
  • Walker calls the behavior fiscally immoral

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