Comptroller General’s Warning
You know things are rocky when the Comptroller General, David Walker, starts making comparisons between America’s present situation and the fall of Rome.
Mr. Walker is apparently on a Fiscal Wake-up Tour to alert the public, and other interested parties, to his concerns that America is financially overstretched. Which makes a lot of sense, as the country is somewhat addicted to debt, and the Iraq War is not exactly paying for itself.
I am a little skeptical, however, given some of the “key partners” listed for this tour. Particularly the Heritage Foundation, which I regard with a great deal of suspicion. It’s possible that the partners represent a broad bipartisan coalition coming together for the good of the country. What I suspect, however, is that at least some of them are on board to make sure that any cost-cutting further down the line is focused on areas where they’d prefer to eliminate services.
Still, that suspicion aside, the problems cited by Mr. Walker are real, and quite serious. They only get worse when one factors in global warming, incrased resource shortages, and a rising population.
Sadly, as I commented last week, it doesn’t look like any of the candidates for the 2008 US Presidential Election are really aiming to tackle these problems. I’d love to be proven wrong.
16 Aug 2007 at 06:19
I don’t think you will be proven wrong. After all, telling people the country is in too much debt will only remind them of their own overstretched, interest-only, no money down, adjustable rate mortgage that they could only afford the payment on when it was 3%.
And worse, some of those people might think they were being criticized for it. That’s not how you get votes.