Blast from the past. My interview with David Walker, lying sack of shit.

Just thought I'd post this again.

David Walker, former Controller General and Chief Propagandist in the effort to "reform" Social Security (he's a self-proclaimed, fiscal responsibility expert). Also, an all-around lying sack of shit. This was from an interview I did with him on my radio show back in 2008, where he admitted that the Social Security checks would NEVER bounce. He admitted it. Listen.



I am the only person, EVER to get Walker to admit this publicly and I have no job in the media.

By the way, when I worked at Fox News I offered this audio clip numerous times to the producers and Neil Cavuto, but they didn't have any interest at all even though they had Walker on numerous times. Why not confront him on this comment, especially when he's been leading a billion dollar crusade to strip seniors of Social Security even though he's lying about its solvency.

Bradford Richardson — Ex-GAO head: US debt is three times more than you think

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

Working on a new podcast interview with David Walker

Hi folks. I am working on a new podcast interview with David Walker, former Comptroller General of the USA and self proclaimed, "Deficit Ranger." ( https://twitter.com/DeficitRanger)

It's been a while. Many of you might recall this: Interview with David Walker on my radio show.

Or this: bumping into him at Fox News several years ago where he insisted that he was not pushing for ending Social Security and that he NEVER said it would go bankrupt. Remember?

Well, hopefully I will get him. (And I will be nice.) Give me questions to ask.

He said possibly late next week. (Tweet to him!)

Cool how Mike Norman Economics is starting to get some pull. (I think.)

I am the only one, EVER, to get David Walker to admit publicly that there is no solvency issue when it comes to Social Security

Forget CNBC, Fox Business, MSNBC, CNN...forget Neil Cavuto, Joe Kernan, Larry Kudlow, O'Reilly, Hannity, Bartiromo, Chuck Todd, Chris Wallace, Bob Schieffer, Brian Williams...forget them all.

I am the only one, EVER, to get former Comptroller General of the U.S. -- David Walker -- to admit, publicly, that there is NO SOLVENCY ISSUE WITH SOCIAL SECURITY.

It was on my radio show back in 2008. Here is the soundbite from that interview where he dishonestly states, "I don't think there's a solvency issue. I am not asserting there is a solvency issue."

Yet we all know that he and his deceitful backer, Pete Peterson, have been spending millions in a dishonest campaign of fear mongering in an attempt to convince people that Social Security is bankrupt and needs to be eliminated.

Here's the audio:



Pass it around.

When they try to scare you with the national debt, give them the national assets

I'm sure you've heard of the debt clock, right? That is that big electronic billboard ticking away at light speed in Times Square that shows the size of the national debt, which is currently at $17.3 trillion, and debt per citizen at $54,000.

Well, what they don't show you are the national assets, which are at least five times more. The national assets are $108 trillion and assets per citizen are at $341,000.

Walk into any bank and ask them for a loan. Then say, "Here are my debts." What do you think the banker is going to ask you? What are your assets!

However, in our national dialogue about debt our assets are never even mentioned. And by the way, our assets are WAAAAAY more than $108 trillion. If you count land value, natural resources, intellectual assets, etc, it's probably closer to a quadrillion dollars.

My conversation with David Walker today exposed a lot. Like, he really, really, doesn't have a clue.

My Twitter conversation today with David Walker exposed a lot, like, he's very confused. First he tried to say that I "grossly misrepresented" him with my sound clip of our interview, where he said that the Social Security checks would not bounce, thus contradicting himself and all of his efforts in trying to make people believe that the program was insolvent.

Today he clarified in his tweet that he was referring to the short term health of SS, but not long term. Then I said to him that it didn't matter, short term or long term; the U.S. can't run out of dollars. I sent him the clip of Alan Greenspan smacking down Paul Ryan on this very subject.

The effort apparently went right over Walker's head because his response to me was that I didn't understand government finance. He said--get this--that it was a question of fiscal policy and not monetary policy. (As if I didn't understand that.) I never even mentioned monetary policy to this guy!!!

All at once it made me realize that Walker didn't grasp what Greenspan and I were saying. I guess he thought that we must have been referring to monetary policy because we said something about the government not running out of dollars and he believes those dollars can only come from one place and one place only and that is the Fed. (He's obviously hooked on the Fed "money printing" thing.)

Walker went on to say there were "legal issues" that I didn't understand as well. What legal issues? My guess is that he was trying to make a point that the Fed could not "pay into" Social Security. No kidding, but that was never anything that I ever mentioned.

He continued by trying to impress me with the fact that he was a Social Security Trustee for five years. This was intended to mean that he, not I, was the expert on the matter. (And we all know that government bureacrats and even high level policy "experts" ALL know what they're talking about when it comes to the monetary system right? !@#$%)

Anyway, the whole conversation left me very depressed. This guy really, really, has no clue.

David Walker responds to my tweet

He calls himself "Deficit Ranger." Oh brother.

@mikenorman - Your clip is a gross misrepresentation of my interview via selective editing. My comment was on current not L/T solvency. DW

— Dave Walker (@DeficitRanger) December 29, 2013

Says I "misrepresented" him and he was referring to the "long-term" deficit. So, we're going to run out of dollars in the long term, David?

Here's Greenspan.

I am the only one, EVER, to get David Walker to admit that Social Security can never become insolvent

Here it is. The clip from my interview with him back in 2008 on my radio show.

Mike Norman's interview with former Controller General of the U.S. David Walker, who admits that Social Security can never become insolvent.

Read It And Weep - Blindfolded Man Walkering

Commentary by Roger Erickson

What'd the Soviets use to yell, endlessly? "We're winning. We're whining. We're winning."

Winning what? The war against group intelligence?
(The Middle Class is now dying to learn which metrics are used to select the "nation's top accountant.")

Don't miss the highlighted phrases. Aside from the comic relief provided by those screamers, the only good news is that fewer people are actually paying any attention to the walkering man.

Nation's former top accountant eyes US debt warily

"The economy is slowly growing, the government's yearly budget deficit falling. But the nation's former top accountant doesn't buy the idea that everything is OK."

"... I'm a patriot who knows math ..."

"... bring in more [fiat] ..."

"I have answers."

Well, responses at least. So did Alice in Wonderland.  Do you suppose David Walker ever heard of Beardsley Ruml? You know, while David was training to be the nation's top accountant? Knowledge of Marriner Eccles' 1936 & 1938 policy explanations might be asking too much of a top accountant. Maybe after David stoops to walking in the Middle Class's fiat, instead of on them.

Nonsense From Some of the NAF People Who May Have Been in the Audience at Stephanie Kelton's NAF-Sponsored Talk

Raising [Fiat Currency Issuer] Revenue from Higher Earners through Base Broadening

What's Bill Black say about self-parody?  Somehow, these people either didn't get Beardsley Ruml's 1946 memo, or they simply didn't understand it.

Perhaps their fiat train of thought is still deciding whether or not to acknowledge the station at all, let alone board?

So which is more obsolete? Taxes as revenue to a fiat currency issuer, or the current CRFB membership?

(maybe that could be in one of Bill Mitchell's saturday quizzes)

I'd forward this to Maya MacGuineas, but have given up talking or corresponding with her. She has too much invested to even consider giving up, and is in denial. Ditto for David Walker.

It's reminiscent of an old movie plot.

The DT Death Star seems to be closing on the rebel hideout. Some on board may have analyzed the rebel strategy and realized there is a danger ... but top DT management is not about to show any sign of weakness, so close to their moment of victory. The end is nigh ... one way or another.

Meanwhile, a former master has learned the art of communicating from the grave. Master Marriner Eccles. Teach them to communicate with him I would ... if they'd listen. Not ready are they. :(

I sense great fear in these people. Fear -> anger -> hate -> OutputGap. Always clouded is their freedom to think. I sense the influence of the Dark Side of group dynamics, the Conformists. Always two forms there are. But which are the cons and which are the formists, the followers? Confront this Pete Peterson in person, someone must. To see if he is a con lord, or only a follower.

David Walker is the fault of Jacksonville University and Harvard University training. If only he'd been trained by Master Mosler at the MMT Temple, different things might have been.

(Where was Marriner Eccles trained? Have nearly all the Currency Operations Knights been hunted down by the Emperors DT Troopers?)

$54 trillion PAID BACK and counting...

Just thought I'd check in and see how much of our debt we've "paid back" so far this fiscal year. Let's see...hmmm...well, turns out it's now up to $54 TRILLION. And that was in the past 10 months.

And with absolutely no problem whatsoever. The world didn't end. Interest rates didn't spike up (they're actually at record lows...AGAIN), the dollar went up, the economy is still growing, there's no hyperinflation, gold is down, commodities are down. What else? It's all good.

What say the idiots likes Schiff, Santelli, Rogers, Faber, Paul Ryan, Simpson/Bowles, Peterson, Walker, Fox News, et al?

We don't have money? Can't pay for Social Security for our seniors? Health care? Education? Infrastructure? Basic research? Jobs for the unemployed?

What a joke. We have all the money we need and an abundance of goods and services to make and distribute. It's religion that keeps us from doing it. The proof is right here in these numbers that folks at Treasury and the Fed all understand.

Rates vs. debt...gotta love this chart!

I love this chart so much I had to post it again. Here's the Federal debt (in red, millions $) and here is the rate on the 10yr Treasury (blue).

Hey Schiff, Rogers, Kotkikoff, Rogoff, Reinhart, Greenspan, Walker, Peterson, Simpson, Bowles, and the rest of you...what's your excuse now???

The blatant lies of Peterson, Walker, Simpson, Bowles

By now we have all seen the sheer, blatant, empty, vicious lies of the likes of Pete Peterson, David Walker, Erskin Bowles, Alan Simpson and the rest of the subversive Deficit Terrorists clan.

This dangerous and destructive group is on course to decimate a national standard of living that was once the envy of the world. Their program is all based on filthy lies and the worst part is, they're going to get away with it.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the clever soundbites and dogmatic propaganda points they use:

"Stabilize the debt, unfunded liabilities, fiscal sustainabillity..."

Listen to that snake, Bowles, as he spews forth his lies in an interview with Charlie Rose

Erskine Bowles: I would say that any of these budget proposals that don't reduce the deficit by at least four trillion dollars over the next decade because that's the minimum amount you need to stabilize the debt and get it on a downward path as a percent of GDP, any of them that don't do that, any of them that don't address defense, any of them that don't address Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and don't reform the tax code, and aren't balanced in some way between that aren't serious. Charlie Rose: Then why do you think people have not come to support Bowles-Simpson? Erskine Bowles: Because it's politically painful. The problems are real. The solutions are all painful. There's no easy way out. And everybody gets the arithmetic, everybody understand the economics, but they have to make tough political choices in order to do it. And as long as people are worshipping the great god of reelection, then we're going to have a hard time getting to the promised land. Erskine Bowles: You know, you got to respect the fact that this is tough, you know, for one side or the other. It's going to be tough for the Republicans to concede the fact that we have to have some additional revenue. It's going to be tough for the Democrats to make the kind of concessions you have to make to make Social Security sustainably solvent. But, we have to do these things in order to put our fiscal house in order for our kids.

They're lies, damn lies and nobody even questions them outside of these pages (and a few other MMT sites).

The other day I showed you how the U.S. redeemed ("paid back") $32 TRILLION in debt in the past six months alone. That's more than twice the entire national debt. Done. Paid off. In six months.

Or how about the fact that we paid back $64 trillion in 2011? That's four times the national debt PAID BACK in just 12 months.

How did we do it? Where did all that money come from? China? Japan? Taxes? Savers? There's not that many dollars in the whole world.

We "got it" by changing numbers in bank accounts. Simple as that. Keystrokes. Or, if you prefer...we "printed" it. Yes, we printed it and guess what? No hyperinflation, no collapse in the dollar, no spike in interest rates. In fact, inflation has been tame, the stock market has been going up, the economy has been growing, jobs were created, interest rates remained at historically low levels and yes, even the dollar rallied.

All the fear mongering and all the hysteria about hyperinflation or us becoming the next Zimbabwe is pure bullshit.

Yet nobody looks at the facts. They just swallow the poisonous Kool Aid of the Debt clan.

Where is Geithner or Bernanke, who surely know that the U.S. paid back that $32 TRILLION?

Timothy Geithner is the Secretary of the Treasury for God's sake!!! Are you kidding me, he knows these figures! These numbers are compiled and reported by his own department. Ben Bernanke knows this, too! But they stay silent. They say nothing, other than to repeat the lies of their masters: "We need to get our fiscal house in order." And this is all the excuse they need to gut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans benefits, education, food stamps, etc.

What a sham!

Now we have this ridiculous debt commission that is proposing their hugely destructive policies designed to address the so-called "unfunded liabilities" of Social Security. Do you know just exactly what those "unfunded liabilities" amount to? They amount to some supposed shortfall of $4.32 trillion 75 years from now! That's right, we just put a bunch of clowns in place to deal with a supposed shortfall of $4.32 trillion SEVENTY-FIVE FUCKING YEARS FROM NOW even though we just paid off 8 times that amount in the last six months!!

The stuff I am telling you is the truth. The stuff you are hearing out of the mouths of Peterson, Walker, Bowles, Simpson and the rest of the Deficit Terrorists clan is not. Nor are the words of the lackey, subservient, politicians who parrot their crap for the promise of some campaign donation, true either.

The bottom line is, the fiscal crisis is a myth. It's a myth manufactured by a bunch of ideological zealots who want nothing more than to steal the wealth of this nation for themselves so they can lord over a bunch of powerless, servile peasants. That would be us.

We have no fiscal crisis in this country. The only crisis we have is that these bastards are in charge. It's time to make that stop.

-Mike Norman

David Walker Invents Reverse IQ Test

Former US Beancounter-in-Chief David Walker was out today in the media rolling out a new "Fiscal IQ" test for the public and policymakers.  Related OpEd from Walker at Politico here.

It looks like this IQ test works in reverse to most normal IQ tests, in that with Walker's test here, the higher score you get, the less intelligent you are.

Here is a link to the online test.  (Where do these people get the funds to do this stuff?)

Interesting excerpt from his Question 9 here: "Health care is the one thing that could literally bankrupt America."  This does not square with his own assertion to Mike from months ago that "there is no solvency issue" with regards to the US government finances.

TIP:  Go back to counting your beans David, and leave macro policy recommendations to those who know how a Free Floating Non-convertable currency system operates.