David Walker is the former head of the Government Accountability Office from 1998 to 2008 and is now the current CEO of the Concord Coalition which is an offshoot of the Peter G Peterson Foundation.He claims the U.S. government is in a financial hole of $56 trillion,which includes money owed to federal civilian and military retirees and to various building leases and maintenance programs.But the biggest amount is owed to Social Security, Medicare and to domestic and foreign investors.The Treasury holds I.O.U's to all the investors who purchased bonds from us to pay for our past deficits.The government has spent all the money collected from the "entitlement programs" to finance past budgets that went for all kinds of expenditures(especially military).Walker claims the era of tax revolt gathered steam under President Reagan in the 1980's when we began to cut taxes and increase spending( mostly military).He also states that persistent antigovernment,antitax strain in our national character threatens to keep total revenues from rising high enough to match our spending.Walker also blames Americans for living above their means on easy credit and reversing the traditional culture of thrift and saving(American counter culture associates championed this value).Our political representatives,according to Walker,encouraged them with low taxes and generous government benefits(Walker at this point of the book hasn't looked at income inequality statistics or why the majority of Americans(71%) use credit cards for basic needs like car repairs..people don't save if their income is so low,wages have been stagnant since the late seventies...he is also against unions and collective bargaining due to his problems with his own employees at GAO who formed one during his tenure).The federal debt has grown by 176% since 2000 from 20.4 trillion to 56.4 trillion.Bush II increased the debt by sending troops,without Congressional permission,to Afghanistan,Iraq,(Obama into Lybia),creating a Homeland Security Department and signing off on an expensive Medicare drug program(benefited the large drug companies) without revenues from taxes.He also compounded the deficit problem by lowering taxes that lost considerable revenue to pay for his spending.Obama continued this trend to solve the employment problems caused by the Great Recession(bank greed) by spending on banks bailouts,stimulus programs and continuing the same tax strategy.Walker states that half our public debt is foreign owned(I read recently in the Treasury site that it is listed at 27%).He had the nation's foreign debt at 19% in 1990 and zero after WWII."Comeback America", after reading the first chapter and prologue, seems to be setting the stage for cutting mandatory spending programs.He believes that if we don't cut, it will undermine the next generation and their quest for a renewed America.
More from "Comeback America" shortly.
Is today your anniversary? If so, happy anniversary!
ReplyDeletegkoralis@aol.com
By the way, Bush did get Congressional approval for both Afghanistan and Iraq.
ReplyDeleteYes,it was my anniversary on the 6th..thanks..who is this?
ReplyDeleteThe authorization in 2001 was for the use of force against the terrorists that bombed the United States.The terrorists were not part of the administration in any country.President Bush shouldn't have attacked two countries(Iraq and Afghanistan) and created bases in these countries without permission from host country.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to check your response. I knew it was your anniversary because you got married on the day of the famous canoe trip.
ReplyDeleteJim Finnegan
The Taliban, which controlled much of Afghanistan in 2001, permitted Al Qaeda to operate in the country. In order to attack the terrorists, we had to attack the Taliban. Congress gave Bush the authority to do this. I knew from following Afghanistan in the papers and in a couple of books that it was impossible to completely conquer and pacify Afghanistan: geography and warring tribes prevented Alexander the Great, the Brits, and the Soviets from doing so. Bush -- and now Obama -- must have read different books. We should have concentrated all our fire power on doing our best to eliminate Al Qaeda from the area, including attacking them in Pakistan, and then gotten out of the country. Instead, we decided to also attack Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. Nonetheless, Bush did have Congressional authorization to invade Iraq. That adventure, of course, has been a complete disaster.
ReplyDeleteIgnore the "Sean said." That is one of my sons, and I can tell you that he is not writing this.
Thanks Jim ..good to hear from you.Yes,that was the famous day in April that many took that historic canoe trip and paid the price in the cold, cold water.Saw a pcture of you recently from Christmas time in a bar..George,Steve and others..look great.
ReplyDeleteI agree we needed to do something about Al Qaeda and I know the Taliban was enabling them to train but there was no love between them.We could have paid them to take care of our business.They would have been happy with a little cash compared to the billions we spent.Al Qaeda was very sucessful in damaging our economy and bringing it down without another major terrorist action.I also have genuine support for the pacifist avenue of non-violence to solve difficult problems like terrorism.I was against the Afghanistan War from the beginning. Authorization was given to go after them(no declaration of war) but that doesn't mean distroying the lives of numerous(600,000-1,000,000)people for our own security was acceptable.We(our government) used misinformation through a highly organized public relation operations to sell the two wars to the American people.Al Qaeda was never really a national threat to the U.S. in the way it was advertised.Improving homeland security was more important than our overseas operations.Obama is wrong for sending our firepower to protect the rebels for humanitarian reasons.Their demonstrations were non-violent and should have stayed that way.Military men are now involved in the rebels movement and that is why they are losing the conflict without more military assistance...only a major civil war will develop...I also hate Notre Dame for beating the Conn. women in basketball.Long live work councils in capitalism.