GAO Warns of Economic Disaster
Matt Crenson of Associated Press writes about why David M. Walker is worried that the USA is headed for economic disaster.
Walker is Comptroller General of the United States Government Accountability Office which audits the performance of the federal government. He is trying to wake America up to the scope and importance of the out of control federal budget deficit,
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We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed.
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Why is America so fiscally unprepared for the next century? Like many of its citizens, the United States has spent the last few years racking up debt instead of saving for the future. Foreign lenders — primarily the central banks of China, Japan and other big U.S. trading partners — have been eager to lend the government money at low interest rates, making the current $8.5-trillion deficit about as painful as a big balance on a zero-percent credit card.
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Medicare already costs four times as much as it did in 1970, measured as a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product. It currently comprises 13 percent of federal spending; by 2030, the Congressional Budget Office projects it will consume nearly a quarter of the budget.
You can’t solve a problem until the majority of the people believe you have a problem that needs to be solved.
[via reddit]