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