David Walker, comptroller general of US Government Accountability Office resigns - that's a bad sign

Bill Donoghue, writing for Marketwatch, says that the US government is spending the country into oblivion. He advises investors to sell US stocks. More relevant to readers of this blog, he advises that profligate US government spending is going to create enormous challenges for the country. It cannot continue. For people like me, that means that any universal health care plans, or plans to expand health care, will never be as expansive as they should (in my opinion) be. It will mean that increased health care must be financially sustainable in a deteriorating situation.


David Walker, comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has since 1998 been the objectively informed and outspoken critic of America's balance sheet. He has criticized supporting Iraq's dysfunctional government, pork barrel spending by Congress, unrealistic "universal health care plans" we can ill-afford or support, the escalating risks of huge deficits, fiscal vulnerability to hostile foreign governments, and a lack of will to reform our government

"David Walker has proven that one person can make a difference," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in a release. "As Comptroller General for the last decade, he has been a tireless and effective advocate for the need to make our nation's long-term fiscal situation a priority."

Facing indifference on the Hill and unrealistic spending promises, Walker is resigning with five years still remaining in his term to head the newly formed Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and Commerce secretary in the Nixon administration, has pledged an astounding startup budget for the foundation of $1 billion.

That money will attack what the foundation considers "the most substantial economic, fiscal and other sustainability challenges of our current age" -- including federal entitlement programs, health care, unprecedented trade and budget deficits, low savings rates, mounting foreign debt, soaring energy consumption, an uncompetitive educational system, and the proliferation of nuclear warfare materials. Maybe Congress will listen this time.

"I have been around a very long time, and I have never seen so many simultaneous challenges that I would describe as undeniable, unsustainable and virtually untouchable politically," Peterson said in a prepared statement.

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I'm optimistic for our country long-term because of the potential of the Peterson foundation, but disturbed about the plight of investors whose advisers will preach the out-of-date stay-the-course story and lead them into yet another bear market from which to recover.