David Walker still foaming at the mouth.
The former U.S. comptroller general says the real U.S. debt is closer to about $65 trillion than the oft-cited figure of $18 trillion. Dave Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said when you add up all of the nation’s unfunded liabilities, the national debt is more than three times the number generally advertised. “If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms,” Walker told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970 in an interview airing Sunday. The former comptroller general, who is in charge of ensuring federal spending is fiscally responsible, said a burgeoning national debt hampers the ability of government to carry out both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.…Where does he think dollars comes from? He apparently can't distinguish between the currency issuer and currency users.
He might have a point if he were concerned that there won't be sufficient real resources in the future owing to lack of private and public investment today so that inflation is likely to result down the line.
The Hill
Ex-GAO head: US debt is three times more than you think
Bradford Richardson
4 comments:
Yeah, that article was good for a laugh. Unfortunately, when this sort of message is repeated over and over, people believe it.
Richardson also doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “debt”. A debt is an amount owed NOW. Richardson is including government liabilities which will arise in the future.
The costs of looking after me in my old age are not what an accountant would regard as a debt owed by Ralph Musgrave in 2015.
Unless you borrowed for one of those pre-paid plans.
:)
Thanks for putting things in proper perspective Carlos. That helped reduce my frustration.
I was just going to note that these guys obviously DON'T think. If what they think is 3x what J&J Sixpack think, then you've hit the explanation for why the output is coming out the brown end.
Somewhere along the line, "thinking" got rewired. How else ya gonna explain it?
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