What are we (not) Talking about here?!?!

By DAN MITCHELL
Published: October 22, 2005
IT'S easy to imagine how busy the comptroller of the United States, David M. Walker, has been since he was appointed in 1998, calling out wayward politicians on fiscal matters.
But lately, Mr. Walker has been on a tear. He is making appearances nationwide to warn of what he says is a looming federal fiscal crisis, likening it to horrific weather events.
"We have not yet begun to face the demographic tidal wave - the demographic tsunami, if you will - associated with the retirement of my generation, the baby boom generation," Mr. Walker said during a recent panel discussion in Minneapolis, which can be heard on Minnesota Public Radio's Web site, mpr.org.
Also this week, National Review Online (nationalreview.com) quoted Mr. Walker as saying during an appearance in Richmond, Va., that "a Category 6 hurricane is threatening our shores - it's the federal budget deficit."
For the panel discussions, representatives from two research groups, one from the liberal Brookings Institution and one from the conservative Heritage Foundation, usually tag along with Mr. Walker.
This is to make it clear that the effort is not a partisan attack on the Republican-controlled government. It is also to emphasize that while the problem has worsened under the Bush administration (even the Heritage Foundation says so), the government's fiscal condition is not tied to any president's policies. As comptroller, Mr. Walker is in charge of the Government Accountability Office. Its Web site, www.gao.gov/special.pubs/longterm, offers easily digestible material in support of his arguments.
But however loud, logical or well presented the arguments may be, the lack of government action seems to some to come from a systemic fault in modern American politics.
"There is not much courage out there," said Brian M. Riedl of the Heritage Foundation, speaking at the Minneapolis event. "Like an alcoholic, the first thing you have to do is admit you have a problem. The flip side of it is, Americans are vehemently opposed to every possible solution."