In a radio interview airing on Sunday, former U.S. Comptroller General and chief of the Government Accountability Office Dave Walker asserted that America’s national debt is over three times the official figure, which dramatically understates the government’s financial commitments.
Walker told host John Catsimatidis of AM-970 in New York, as related by The Hill:
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 worried that Americans have “lost touch with reality” when it comes to government spending.
The political class profits from that sense of unreality, banking on the public’s reluctance to dwell on red ink of incomprehensible debt.
Numbers too big for voters to wrap their heads around seem unreal.
Walker is one of many analysts who have attempted to calculate the “true” national debt, which is indisputably much higher than the already horrifying $18 trillion figure cited as the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency approaches.
Some figure total federal unfunded liabilities at almost $127 trillion, nearly double the figure Walker proposed. Some believe that number will soar past $210 trillion in a few decades..."
No comments:
Post a Comment