July 8, 2007
U.S. Heading For Financial Trouble?
Comptroller Says Medicare Program Endangers Financial Stability
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Play CBS Video Video U.S. Headed For Fiscal Crisis? In Full: David Walker, comptroller general of the U.S., totaled up our government's income, liabilities and future obligations. He concluded the numbers don't add up. Steve Kroft reports.
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Video Kroft's Reporter's Notebook Only On The Web: Steve Kroft talks about his "60 Minutes" report on America's financial future. He talked to Comptroller General David Walker, who says we may be heading for a financial crisis.
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U.S. Comptroller General David Walker (CBS)
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When the stock market soars or plunges, everyone pays attention. But short term results aren't that important to the man you're about to meet. David Walker thinks the biggest economic peril facing the nation is being ignored, and for nearly two years now he has been traveling the country like an Old Testament prophet, urging people to wake up before its too late. Who is David Walker and why should we care?
As correspondent Steve Kroft first reported earlier this year, he is the nation's top accountant, the comptroller general of the United States. He's totaled up our government's income, liabilities, and future obligations and concluded that our current standard of living is unsustainable unless some drastic action is taken. And he's not alone. It's been called the "dirty little secret everyone in Washington knows" - a set of financial truths so inconvenient that most elected officials don't even want to talk about them, which is exactly why David Walker does.
"I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan but our own fiscal irresponsibility," Walker tells Kroft.
David Walker is a prudent man and a highly respected public official. As comptroller general of the United States he runs he Government Accountability Office, the GAO, which audits the government's books and serves as the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. He has more than 3,000 employees, a budget of a half a billion dollars, and a message he considers urgent.
"I'm going to show you some numbers…they’re all big and they’re all bad," he says.
So bad, that Walker has given up on elected officials and taken his message directly to taxpayers and opinion makers, hoping to shape the debate in the next presidential election.
"You know the American people, I tell you, they are absolutely starved for two things: the truth, and leadership," Walker says.
He calls it a fiscal wake up tour, and he is telling civic groups, university forums and newspaper editorial boards that the U.S. has spent, promised, and borrowed itself into such a deep hole it will be unable to climb out if it doesn’t act now. As Walker sees it, the survival of the republic is at stake.
"What’s going on right now is we’re spending more money than we make…we’re charging it to credit card…and expecting our grandchildren to pay for it. And that’s absolutely outrageous," he told the editorial board of the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
You have heard this before, from Ross Perot 15 years ago. You might have even thought the problem had been solved, when President Clinton announced, "Tonight, I come before you to announce that the federal deficit … will be simply zero."
"Well, those days are gone. We've gone from surpluses to huge deficits and our long range situation is much worse," Walker says.
"President Bush would argue that the economy is in pretty good shape, unemployment is down, the deficit is actually less than expected," Kroft remarks.
"The fact is, is that we don't face an immediate crisis. And, so people say, 'What's the problem?' The answer is, we suffer from a fiscal cancer. It is growing within us. And if we do not treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country," Walker replies.
The cancer, Walker says, are massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford, exacerbated by a demographic glitch that began more than 60 years ago, a dramatic spike in the fertility rate called the "baby boom."
Produced by Andy Court
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 466 CommentsHowever, perhaps he should consider the 1.5 Billion dollars a day that the U.S. is currently spending on the War in Iraq as another source for the "crisis", and ask how funds that keep this war ongoing should be diverted to allay the cost for healthcare in the United States today.
For the last couple of years, there has been an improvement in the ability of older people to get jobs in IT for which they have experience, because of the number of people retiring.
But business wants Congress to remove all limits on the number of foreign visas. Then they will be able to go back to rampant age discrimination. Anybody who thinks the laws against this make a difference, is not living in the real world. As human resource people will tell you, you can always find a reason not to hire someone.
If they can't "afford" to live within our means, what makes them think that a future generation will be able to do so, AND pay back what they have borrowed?
This should be the lead story on the news shows every day, until the Congress comes up with a plan that guarantees that they won't spend more than they take in. For example, if they spend more in one year than they take in, just add that amount as an expense for the following year.
For more info on this, check out http://www.federalbudget.com/
VERY sobering!!!
China has the only answer that corrupt government officials will listen to...
We need to go to a similar system.
Now thats what I call anti corruption! Wanna really solve our fiscal problems, this is how to do it right!
The larger and more powerful,& rich, a civilization is,the more likely the citizens are going to lose control of it,and it will become a dictatorship of a few.Read ancient history if you do not believe me.America is not the first to have this happen.In reality,being a big,rich,powerful nation is a curse.
Wise up,60 Minutes,how stupid do you think we are?Obviously a lot smarter than YOU are.You're listening to politicians,and govt. officials,and believing what they say.We all thought you were a lot smarter than to fall for that old"oh,moan,groan,the dog stole all that money,and ate it!Not your poor,innocent federal govt.!"
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