David Walker on USA debt

[DRumsfeld2000]

$112trillion in liabilities.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/u.s.-standard-of-living-unsustainable-without-drastic-action-former-top-govt.-accountant-says-458329.html?tickers=^dji,^gspc,dia,spy,tlt,IXJ,xlv

U.S. Standard of Living Unsustainable Without Drastic Action, Former Top Govt. Accountant Says
Posted Mar 31, 2010 10:18am EDT by Heesun Wee in Investing, Recession
Related: ^dji, ^gspc, dia, spy, tlt, IXJ, xlv

Who will bail out America? A longtime budget hawk and currently CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, David Walker says America's growing long-term debt is dangerously close to passing a "tipping point" that could trigger soaring interest rates and a plummeting dollar. In a worst case scenario, that could trigger a "global depression," he says, warning: "Nobody's going to bail out America."

With the U.S. facing $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities and around $62 trillion in total long-term debt, what worries Walker most is what happens after the recession dissipates, as detailed here. "I'm less concerned with the short-term deficits than I am the fact that we're not doing anything about those structural deficits that people used to call long-term," says Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office. "But the long-term is here."

What's ultimately at stake may be nothing short of Americans' faith in government and our standard of living. "There is a way forward. There is hope," Walker says. "But we need to actually make some tough choices."

Walker, author of a new book, "Comeback America," argues the U.S. needs to tackle four key issues if the nation wants to recover:

Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

The IMF austerity program so "loved" by many other nations is coming home to roost.

[bpr]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

...Former Top Govt. Accountant Says... A longtime budget hawk and currently CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation

Seriously, I read the rest of the post, but it didn't overcome how discredited he is by the introduction.

"Hi, I watched assholes perpetuate bullshit and now you can read about it for 29.95."

Create your own expletive.

[GRG55]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

...Walker, author of a new book, "Comeback America," argues the U.S. needs to tackle four key issues if the nation wants to recover:

Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system

The real cost of first creating and believing in, and second bailing out, the world's most corrupt financial system...

[and there seems nobody that believes in the US financial system more than the elected and key unelected officials in D.C.]

[BigBagel]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system

I guess military spending is not an issue. Every dollar is well spent.

[jtabeb]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system

I guess military spending is not an issue. Every dollar is well spent.

In neo- feudalism, you cut out the proles, not the military, and esp. not the "Inner-party" members.

[SBell]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

....What's ultimately at stake may be nothing short of Americans' faith in government...

Yeah, I think that one is already pretty well past the tipping point....

[bobola]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

David Walker is interviewed recently here on Fresh Air;

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=124460237

[iyamwutiam]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

NPR tells you everything you need to know- he is one more stooge by the mind control police. We are supposed to accept that the trillions of dollars that were 'borrowed' from the SS TRUST and mis-spent is NOT the issue.

SS is the biggest cash cow the US government has -so it will still take money from your paycheck -but now -it will be held 'safely' in the hands of the banksters or some disguised (GSE) which is still the same banksters.

If you just stopped defense and corporate subsidies -like the Intel factory in China -we are paying for own future to be exported for Intel's "future"?!?! What the f*#K!!!!


Anyway -I almost fell for this stooge until I really listened to his rhetoric and as has been pointed out -noticed how defense/ corporate subsidies are NOT on the table.


Obama -change you can believe in till the election is over -suckers!!!

[BigBagel]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

SS is the biggest cash cow the US government has

Had not has.

[ASH]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Seriously, I read the rest of the post, but it didn't overcome how discredited he is by the introduction.

"Hi, I watched assholes perpetuate bullshit and now you can read about it for 29.95."

Create your own expletive.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean, BPR. Are you saying that David Walker didn't do anything when he was at GAO, or something else? I recall David Walker warning that America's fiscal spending was unsustainable when he was Comptroller General, and GAO published some very forceful projections on this topic when Walker was there. Of course, being a bureaucrat rather than a legislator, he wasn't in a position to make the assholes in Congress stop perpetuating BS.

[ASH]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Impose tough budget limits
Reform Social Security
Cut health-care costs
Reform the U.S. tax system

I guess military spending is not an issue. Every dollar is well spent.

I suspect military spending would be impacted by 'tough budget limits'. Cutting military spending would be helpful. However, it isn't military spending that is steadily increasing relative to GDP. The structural budgetary problem really is entitlement spending -- specifically Medicare (Social Security to a lesser extent). Cutting military spending to, say, European levels would free up more money to support entitlement spending, but quantitatively, it isn't the growth of military spending that is itself unsustainable.

[ASH]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Had not has.

Bingo! hidden text for ten characters?

[iyamwutiam]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Bingo! hidden text for ten characters?

Wrong on every count. First of all everyday an American works -that cash is automatically sent to SS. It is a living collective that each day garners income from every salaried american. Its tax paid every day/every month. Then on top of it -you get to do it again -in April. Also -lets be pragmatic and understand that a major reason the US doesn't create digital social security cards is that they KNOW -a bunch of illegals are using SS#s -to get jobs -and they pay INTO SS.

[ASH]

Re: David Walker on USA debt

Wrong on every count. First of all everyday an American works -that cash is automatically sent to SS. It is a living collective that each day garners income from every salaried american. Its tax paid every day/every month. Then on top of it -you get to do it again -in April. Also -lets be pragmatic and understand that a major reason the US doesn't create digital social security cards is that they KNOW -a bunch of illegals are using SS#s -to get jobs -and they pay INTO SS.

Nope. SS tax is only a cash cow when it generates tax revenue in excess of program costs. That was the case, but is not so currently.

(The SS program is technically in surplus right now because it is collecting interest on trust fund assets. But those interest payments are paid out of other federal tax revenue. So the payroll tax is presently insufficient to fund program outlays, and SS is in fact using general tax funds rather than augmenting them.)