Walter Cronkite: U.S. faces twin deficits: Dollars, fiscal leadership

[dw]

In the Philadelphia Inquirer

For most of us, the astronomical estimates for the federal budget and the deficit simply numb our minds, making those numbers easy for politicians to play with - which seems to be just what has been happening. Two agencies of Congress - the Congressional Budget Office and the General Accounting Office - have recently cast doubt on either the Bush administration's ability to count or its candor. The CBO says the President's claim that he will halve the deficit in five years is off the mark. And the GAO warns of a fiscal train wreck not far down the track.

David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the United States, has taken the unusual step of going directly to the public with his concern. He is head of the GAO, established by Congress in 1921 to serve as its investigative arm and to audit the economic performance of the federal government.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, Walker said the government's gross debt - the total of all its annual deficits - was about $7 trillion last September. That translates, he said, into roughly $24,000 for every man, woman and child. And those numbers climb steeply if the gap between Social Security and Medicare commitments and the money set aside to meet them is added in.

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[Arbustosux]

1. but Bush cut taxes for the average American family by $1,400

$24,000 for $1,400 seems fair :)

[reprehensor]

2. Cronkite rules. n/t