Our nation's long-range fiscal situation is in grave peril, according to David Walker, and our deficit is growing daily. If nothing changes, the federal government will only be able to pay for the interest on the accumulated debt, and will be unable to cover health care, social security, education, national defense, homeland security, and other perks. Walker, the nation's top accountant and head of the Government Accountability Office has gotten tired of being ignored by government officials so he now is taking his message directly to the taxpayers as you will see in this streaming video.
- Log in to post comments
More like this
The head of the GAO, David Walker, is now saying what I have been saying for years: our government - our nation - is headed toward a major fiscal crisis. We are a nation living vastly beyond our means in almost every possible way, both personal and governmental. We are running up hundreds of…
Mike the Mad Biologist links to a piece arguing that Social Security is fine thank you very much. Rumor to the contrary is pure political propaganda, and the fact that many young people think they'll never see a dime is a result of simple fearmongering.
I am sorry to say that they're not right.…
Before I get to an excellent NY Times article by David Leonhardt about taxes, I want to say why taxes shouldmust matter to scientists.
Even so often, I get a link or a comment which decries my posts about politics*. But the lay of the political landscape is vital for scientists--and not just for…
Perusing the Congressional Budge Office website, I came across some fascinating numbers from the Federal budget. For instance, where does Federal revenue primarily come from? Let's look at the historical budget numbers. In 2003, personal income taxes provided 44.5% of all revenues; in 2000 it was…
This comes as no surprise to me. The whole modus operandi of the current Republican Party is to loot the treasury while at the same time destroying the federal government.
They're rather stupid if you ask me. Why kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, particularly when it's producing so many eggs over so long a time. Now they're going to kill the goose and abscond with the money.
Nice of them. I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
It's time to quit bribing other countries with threats of scanctions,reframe from loans and collect the debts due and take care of our own. Medical help for me is null and void unless I want it on my credit report.Our emergency room is no long affilliated with the hospital,who can write off an indigent persons' costs. Prosecute? hmmmm,I remember Starr doing sumthin like that and wasting more "time & money". Milk & honey : no-peanut butter sandwiches with "stick to your teeth white bread",oatmeal and an ocasional cup of ramon noodles with water to drink makes a great diet eh?!! What a blessing,compared to starving people over seas. Who do I thank? guess it'll be my grandkids huh?! I need a better paying job but manage to pay my bills and get-by check to check. And I'm only 53.I gotta work possibly 17 more years. Now I'm really depressed......:o{
I think you're mischaracterizing the program--the concern is not the money we've borrowed from our citizens and other countries, but the rate of increase of our entitlement programs that dwarf any other problem. Put it this way; our tax receipts track our GDP very closely (no matter who is in power), and our GDP grows (inflation adjusted) 2.0-3.0% every year. If a government program (inflation adjusted) consistently grows faster than that, it will eventually take over the whole budget. Military spending, for example, has increased *less* than GDP growth, and that is not foreseen to change. The main problem (as was emphasized in the program) is Social Security and Medicare (mostly Medicare). Medicare spending is expected to quadruple as a percentage of our GDP by 2075, which is another way of saying it will take up four times the current percentage of our budget, crowding out just about everything but some of Social Security (which will also grow dramatically as a percentage of GDP).