Sunday, March 04, 2007

Liveblogging Comptroller General David Walker on 60 Minutes

The nation's accountant talks to Steve Kroft on the consequences of entitlement spending. The story is titled: "Wake Up Call." Kroft calls him an "Old Testament prophet" trying to convince people about the problem.

"The dirty little secret in Washington that everybody knows."

Walker: "The most serious threat to American security is not somebody in a cave but our own fiscal irresponsibility."

Kroft: "Walker has given up trying to convince government officials and has taken his show on the road to convince the [American public.]"

Walker: "When those Boomers start retiring en masse, that will be a tsumani of spending."

"The real problem is health care costs. Our health care problem is much worse than Social Security. The Medicare problem is much worse. The prescription drug benefit adds $8 trillion on top of the $15-$20 trillion obligation of entitlement spending."

Kroft: "Walker says that we've promised seniors unlimited healthcare. The system is unsustainable."

Kroft: "You'd expect that we'd present dissenting opinions to counter Walker, but almost nobody does."

Walker: "Any politicians who tells you you can solve our problem without reforming [entitlement spending], they're not telling you the truth. The longer we wait, the more we tempt fiscal crisis."

Walker: "We are mortgaging our childrens' futures."

NOTE: All quotes are pretty close with only some syntax errors.

2 comments:

The Sanity Inspector said...

It's too late, anyway. I still remember the Reagan-era talk about how brain-stunningly huge the federal deficit was, how the stack of dollar bills would reach to the moon and back, and suchlike. We're unimaginably beyond even that, now. If Reagan and Gingrich and George W. Bush, at his 2002 peak of popularity, couldn't get spending under control, then no one will.

Anonymous said...

Mmm, yes, even with George W. Bush's 2002 popularity, he couldn't restrain the spending. It... it just happened. The invisible spendmonster was just too much for him, the poor dear.