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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index
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To: Jim McMannis who wrote (123628)5/16/2008 9:10:20 PM
From: CBurnettRead Replies (2) of 306849
 
Do you recall the GAO Auditor resigning last year ?
His concerns were not heard.
Outgoing GAO Comptroller Says Looming Financial Crisis Goes Ignored

rotor.com

Quote:
Outgoing Comptroller General David Walker earlier this week chided Congress for working overtime to try to ward off the likely recession while ignoring the long-term financial crisis threatening the nation's economic future. In an interview, Walker said "all the time and money we are spending trying to avoid a recession" could be an exercise in futility because "the business cycle has not been repealed." He said that although "we should do something within reason" to address the problems in the housing and credit markets, "I don't think you can avoid a recession indefinitely."

In the meantime, "we are doing nothing about the $53 trillion hole" in 21st century funding for Social Security and Medicare, he said. Walker said the next president should appoint a bipartisan commission to develop a plan to rein in entitlement spending then submit the plan to Congress for a vote. He credited President Bush for proposing a Social Security reform proposal but said the plan was fatally flawed from inception because the president placed too much emphasis on private accounts.

Walker suggested a "mandatory reconsideration trigger" for slowing down Medicare spending if it escalated too rapidly. He said that even Sweden, one of the world's premier welfare states, had that mechanism to combat runaway healthcare costs. "We write a blank check for (health care)," he said. "There is no other country in the world dumb enough to do that."

As another major contributor to the nation's budget woes, Walker cited wasteful spending by the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department. "When you say defense or homeland security, there is an assumption that it has to be done" and that it would be unpatriotic to challenge the requests of the two agencies, he said, adding: "But they will not escape the crunch when it comes."

David Walker will be missed. Unfortunately, politicians and voters seem to be oblivious to our deficit spending problems, which are escalating dangerously:

The Federal Government's Financial Health: A Citizen's Guide to the 2007 Financial Report of the U.S. Government
gao.gov
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