David (Walker) vs. Goliath

The congressional watchdog agency, the General Accounting Office, is losing their top man. On March 12, 2008, David M. Walker will depart the position of U.S. Comptroller General.

He’s making the move from the federal government to a civilian position as president and CEO of the new Peter G. Peterson Foundation (www.petergpetersonfoundation.org/news.asp). Mr. Peterson is committing $1 billion to the foundation for the purpose of drawing attention to what he stated as “…These problems have reached tidal proportions and festered for more than two decades due to political irresponsibility — now is the time to put politics aside and put the country first, and begin to solve these problems with courage and clarity. This is the moment in our history when we do what is necessary to remain a first class country.”

For over nine years, Walker has emphasized the detrimental effects of overspending and waste by agencies and departments. In his attempt to propel Congress towards the reality of America’s future and institute long-term thinking in solving the major problems rapidly approaching, he has only been partially effective. Though lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have praised Walker, Congress as a whole has shown no inclination to address the major problems which threaten America.

The last few years, Walker joined a “The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour,” which was organized by budget watchdog groups. He has traveled across the country using his show-and-tell power-point presentation to alert “we the people” to the federal government’s fast-approaching fiscal disaster.

In an CBS 60 Minutes’ segment on March 4, 2007 and later updated in July 2007 (www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/01/60minutes/main2528226.shtml) , Walker stated “The fact is, is that we don’t face an immediate crisis. And, so people say, ‘what’s the problem?’ The answer is, we suffer from a fiscal cancer. It is growing within us. And if we do not treat it, it could have catastrophic consequences for our country.”

One of the few beltway realists, Walker has faced the enemy over and over in a political environment where the fantasy-makers continue to defend their spending without any accountability. The cancer(s) are the massive entitlement programs we can no longer afford.

Add the demographic glitch that began more that 60 years ago, a dramatic spike in the fertility rate called the “baby boom.” Of course, no one mentions the demographic effect that abortion has had on holding our population down which will place a greater tax burden on fewer American workers to pay for those social programs.

Due to lack of interest in solving the dire consequences ahead of us, Congress has consistently sidestepped the issues that face us as a nation. In a sense, they have refused to be realists. As long as everything is going along hunky-dory in the short term, why worry about long-term problems.

We all procrastinate and are deniers in some areas of our lives and we sometimes pay the consequences for our inaction or lack of corrections. But Congress refuses to deal with the nation’s major problems — federal entitlement programs, healthcare, trade deficits, budget deficits, etc. And let’s not forget the overwhelming National Debt and Personal Debt which never goes down. In the long run, we become a weaker nation.

Addiction to spending and wasting money is a congressional and presidential past time which can only result in weakness and a ballooning goliath which threatens to take all of us down.

Walker has persistently and consistently pointed to the pitfalls that block the road ahead and the much needed reforms or deletions of many of the governmental agencies who cost us the most.

In the same CBS 60 Minutes interview in which he deplored the government’s fiscal irresponsibility, Walker said, “You know the American people, I tell you, they are absolutely starved for two things: the truth, and leadership.” Amen to that! What we usually receive from our news sources is repeated, empty, political rhetoric about the “positive” state of our union and a continuous lack of constitutional leadership.

There is no doubt that Walker has been up against a Goliath of denial even though Congress and the administration know the problems. Hopefully Walker will rise to the challenge of turning to and educating “We the People.”

Maybe Americans will listen and raise the standard to desire what is best for our country instead of what the Goliath Government can provide for us. It is past time.

Bonnie Alba is a regular columnist for Novakeo.com
Bonnie Alba is an ‘Un’ Politically Correct writer and researcher. She has a regular column at www.renewamerica.us and publishes on other online publications.