CPAG Leadership Breakfast Series

Walker Paints Grim Picture of Nation's Financial Future

More than 100 AGA Corporate Partners and members gathered in Washington, D.C., last week to hear Comptroller General of the United States David M. Walker, CPA, discuss the financial challenges facing the federal government now and in the future.

“As the chief accountability officer for the federal government, I am very concerned about where we are and where we are going,” Walker said at AGA’s Meet the Financial Management Policy-Makers breakfast April 19. AGA Executive Director Relmond Van Daniker, DBA, CPA, moderated the discussion at the National Press Club.

Walker said that from 2000 to 2005, the country’s total liability went from $20 trillion to $46 trillion; the deficit now stands at $760 billion and only $100 billion of that dealt with the war in Iraq.

The four functions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), headed by Walker, are: oversight, adjudication, foresight and insight. Walker doesn’t want citizens to think that the government cannot do its job, and he wants everyone to understand what is happening fiscally in the U.S. That’s why GAO and other organizations participate in town hall meetings on college campuses across the country to educate the young people who will be bearing the brunt of the country’s long-term liabilities. (Go to http://www.gao.gov/cghome/nat408/index.html to see the information Walker presents at the town hall meetings.)

Providing citizens with a better understanding of these fiscal concerns forces political candidates to discuss the issues and to seek solutions. In fact, Walker believes that every congressional and presidential candidate in upcoming elections will be forced to address the issues and not dance around them. As a result of the town hall meetings, coalitions have been formed, public awareness has increased, and debates are taking place in Congress.

“We aren’t re-engineering government, we are layering,” Walker said. Every dollar that the government spends today on an unsustainable need is a dollar lost for a critical need tomorrow, he said. For instance, one act of Congress—the passage of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit—increased the federal deficit by more than $8 trillion.

Although Walker’s discussion painted a grim picture of the federal fiscal predicament, he did offer several solutions. “Reimpose meaningful controls on the budget, reform entitlement programs, offer realistic spending caps and be more realistic about how we are projecting our future budget path.” Walker said that the government’s process is fundamentally flawed because the focus is on the short term.

Right now, the top five concerns for the government involve energy, the environment, health care, fiscal issues and education. Organizations that are a part of the accountability community, such as AGA, need to inform citizens about the government’s prognosis and work with the government to find solutions.

Walker would like the U.S. to develop a set of key national indicators to enhance performance and accountability reports and to review the base of government. “We need to see the full picture.” Walker believes that only 1 percent of taxpayers read the government’s financial statements. As a result, he said taxpayers need a citizen-centric report that offers helpful information about what the government is achieving.

Walker said: "One of the reasons that I speak candidly about these issues is because I don't personalize this problem and I don't politicize it." 

- Jennifer I. Curtin, MPA

Event Photo Gallery

(l to r) Peter Aliferis, AGA Director of Certification, Relmond Van Daniker, AGA Executive Director, David M. Walker, U.S. Comptroller General	David M. Walker, U.S. Comptroller General
Hank Steininger, Grant Thornton LLP, Chair, CPAG Board	(l to r) Relmond P. Van Daniker, AGA Executive Director, David M. Walker, U.S. Comptroller General
(l to r) Mengssu Chen, OPM and Lisa Thatcher, AOC Solutions	(l to r) Burt Holm - i360 Technologies, Ray Summerell - VISTA and David Cotton - Cotton and Company
UHY Advisors	(l to r) Roger Scearce, Vanguard Advisors LLC and David M. Walker, U.S. Comptroller General