David M. Walker, former U.S. comptroller general, who headed the Government Accountability Office from 1998-2008, now CEO of the Comeback America Initiative, is one of the few who understands the numbers at hand.
See: The fight for a grand bargain.
“Ideologues and special interests on the left and right are marshaling forces to crush all efforts to achieve a reasoned fiscal compromise. We are about to discover if our elected representatives are leaders or minions.
Each party has its sacred cow, untouchable in previous negotiations. For the Republicans, it is their insistence on no tax increases; for the Democrats it is a refusal to consider cuts to social insurance programs.
Both positions are irresponsible — because we cannot address our structural deficits and mounting debt burdens without additional tax revenues and reform of existing social insurance programs. After all, total federal liabilities, unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security, and other commitments are more than $71 trillion and growing by about $100 billion a week.”
It is also critical to understand that there are some 10,000 people turning 65 in America each day now. In many ways the budget fight at hand is not between the left and the right, but between the old and the young. Boomers on both sides want their tax savings and all of their social benefits too. Meanwhile this is a generation who have eaten their cake for years now, indulging their wants while setting aside very little for the future. Their expectations are simply crushing the financial viability of the nation. Now milked dry, it is time to feed the cow.
