United States Comptroller General, David Walker, who is head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), spoke to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging in Washington, D.C. in December. His message about the country's financial condition and our dire long-term picture should be required reading for every American reports The Seattle Times.
When introducing him, the conference chair called Walker a "straight shooter" and said his long tenure (a 15-year term that began in 1998) gives him an independence that's rare in government.
He's going to need it. The picture he painted is beyond grim.
"I'm in the fact business," he said, and proceeded to deliver a litany of them. His message: This country's finances are rushing to a cliff, well beyond what most Americans realize.
For example, in 1964, our elected officials had discretion over how to spend two-thirds of the federal budget. In 2004, that plummeted to 39 percent — and goes down every year.
What are discretionary funds? Just about everything that makes our society whole: education, the environment, transportation, housing, national defense, homeland security, the judicial system and other important activities.
Then look at how our nation's liabilities and unfunded promises for Social Security and Medicare over the next 75 years have grown: $20 trillion dollars projected in 2000 (that's 12 zeros) grew to over $43 trillion in 2004 — more than doubling in just four years. Of that $43 trillion, $8.1 trillion was the new Medicare Prescription Drug Bill.
Yes, he said, older people need prescription drugs, but we were already in the hole $15 trillion to $20 trillion for Medicare before that bill was passed.
"The status quo is not an option," said Walker. "Faster economic growth can help, but there's no way we're going to grow our way out of this problem. The sooner we start to address it, the better."
His prescription: We must re-impose budget controls and be more realistic about the affordability and sustainability of both spending and tax actions before laws are passed. It would be great, he said, if legislators actually read the bills before they voted.
We also must understand which federal programs and policies work and which don't. "Over half the federal programs cannot demonstrate they make a difference." The same can be said for tax policies.
In the final analysis, we need to take three tough actions:
• Restructure Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
• Look at our discretionary and other spending.
• And look at tax policies.
"I'm not worried about myself," he said, "but I'm very concerned about my children and grandchildren. Every dollar of additional deficit today is a dollar — plus additional taxes — for them (to pay) tomorrow unless something changes."
Source: "Straight shooter's" grim message for baby boomers and their heirs, in The Seattle Times, January 16, 2006
According to a healthcare study by the Commonwealth Fund, one-fifth of older workers and their spouses -- representing seven million Americans -- are uninsured or had a time when they were uninsured since age 50. 
