http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2006_spr/walker.htm
The government must change how it does business now or the United
States will face a serious fiscal crisis in the future, said David
Walker, Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability
Office (GAO), at the Conference on Public Service & the Law dinner
March 17. He challenged law students to take on the issues faced by
the government by getting involved in public service at some point in
their careers.
"The United States government faces some serious challenges in the
21st century," Walker warned. "Deficits, changing security threats,
demographics, quality-of-life concerns, rapidly evolving technology,
I
can go on and on and on."
Plagued by waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement, the government
must
reconsider longstanding policies to sustain its superpower status and
leave the country better positioned for the future. "Washington is
out
of control," Walker asserted, not blaming anyone in particular. "I
mean this on a nonpartisan basis.
"We could eliminate every dime of waste...and this nation would still
have large and growing structural deficits," Walker said. There are
"too many layers, too many players, too many turf battles, and too
many hardened silos."
In order to make the necessary changes, the government needs more
leaders with courage, integrity, creativity, and stewardship and who
are willing to reform entitlement policies, namely Social Security,
Medicare, and Medicaid. The government also needs to re-engineer the
base of spending and re-evaluate tax policies.
The GAO, which provides the fiscal oversight, insight, and foresight
for government initiatives, is at the forefront of making critical
changes to government operations, starting with their own agency. "We
try very much as an institution and I try very much as an individual,
to practice what we preach and to keep in mind that leading by
example
is a powerful, powerful, but simple concept."
Walker was able to turn the GAO from an at-risk agency to a model
agency by being a good leader and adhering to three core values;
accountability, integrity, and reliability. The GAO, for example, is
the only government entity that has changed to a flat, market-based,
skills-, knowledge-, and performance-oriented classification and
compensation system.
The government is operating under policies that were meant for
conditions that existed in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, Walker
charged, which hurts government productivity. Once a program or
policy
has been approved, it becomes part of the base set of programs in the
annual budget.
"The base is unaffordable, unsustainable. The base is going to have
to
be dramatically reengineered and GAO is going to be in the forefront
of efforts to analyze what's working, what's not working, and what is
a possible way forward."
In Walker's estimation, the government has specific problem areas
that
must be addressed now. "Number one, a budget deficit. Number two, a
balance of payments deficit, of which the trade deficit is a
subset...
[and] both of those [were] record levels last year. Number three, a
savings deficit. Americans are great at spending, we're poor at
saving...
and then we have, probably the most serious deficit of all and that
is
a leadership deficit. And that is a bipartisan statement," Walker
said.
"Where's the accountability for spending increases and tax cuts that
are unaffordable and unsustainable over time? Where's the
accountability for government programs and tax preferences that
aren't
getting real results? ... Where's the accountability for
congressional
projects, better know as earmarks or pork barrel spending, at a time
of record budget deficits? Where is the outrage about these issues?"
The apathy of citizens will result in record deficits and will affect
generations to come. "When our new grandson was born this afternoon,
he not only got a birth certificate, he received a birth burden of
$156,000. Now I know why he was crying," Walker joked. More and more
of our debt must be financed by foreign nations.
The United States has gone from the largest creditor nation to the
largest debtor nation--and not due to the war on terrorism, Walker
noted. "Of that $760 billion deficit last year, only $100 billion had
anything to do with Iraq, Afghanistan or incremental Homeland
Security
costs," Walker said.
The first baby boomers will reach age 62 in two years, making them
eligible for Social Security. In five years, they will be eligible
for
Medicare, escalating the debt dramatically. The baby boom generation
will not leave the country "better positioned for the future,"
fiscally speaking, Walker said. "We need to get serious soon because
the longer we wait, the more dramatic the changes are going to have
to
be, the more disruptive that they'll be, and the less time that we'll
have to be able to transition to a more positive and sustainable
future."
After Hurricane Andrew, the GAO issued a series of recommendations,
many of which were not adopted but could have been useful for
responders to prepare, respond, and recover before, during, and after
Hurricane Katrina. After Katrina, the GAO again identified areas of
improvement. The national response plan needs clarity, consistency,
and more common sense, Walker said. More training is needed to
mobilize responders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
The
government needs to take a risk- management approach and re-evaluate
whether FEMA even needs to be in the Department of Homeland Security.
Now that rebuilding has begun, tough decisions have to be made, with
the state and local governments taking the lead, Walker said.
The GAO itself has made some tough and unpopular decisions under
Walker's watch, one of which was suing Vice President Dick Cheney. "I
don't like the idea of suing, unless you have to, and I don't
particularly like suing the vice president of the United States. On
the other hand, if we are committed to truth and transparency, if we
believe that anybody who is a public servant is subject to the law
and
that nobody is above the law and the public has a right to know who
met with whom, when, about what, and what did it cost when it deals
with issues as significant as our national energy policy, and if we
were concerned that if we did not act that we were going to face
broad-
based records access problems throughout the entire government, then
under those circumstances, we did what we had to do. We sued." A
district court ultimately dismissed the case, ruling that the GAO
lacked standing to sue.
The GAO chose not to appeal for several reasons; however, the message
got across. The GAO has not had to take any similar action since.
The GAO also acted on the Bush administration's release of government
news stories produced to influence the public on a variety of issues.
Walker said the GAO brought the practice to light because they wanted
citizens to know the government was trying influence them with
"covert
propaganda" financed with their tax money. Congress ultimately
enacted
legislation to stop it.
"I'm a strong believer if you don't learn from history, you're doomed
to repeat it. Unfortunately, I wish we had more Americans that
understood that because in many ways, we're not learning from
history," Walker said. "We have a great country, but we face serious
challenges." We need to address those challenges starting today, he
said, and take steps now to create a better tomorrow.
david_huang2007@hotmail.com wrote:
> http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2006_spr/walker.htm
> The government must change how it does business now or the United
> States will face a serious fiscal crisis in the future, said David Walker,
> Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO),
Just another completely mindless fool.
> at the Conference on Public Service & the Law dinner March 17.
> He challenged law students to take on the issues faced by the government
> by getting involved in public service at some point in their careers.
What a fucking wanker.
> "The United States government faces some serious challenges in the
> 21st century," Walker warned. "Deficits, changing security threats,
> demographics, quality-of-life concerns, rapidly evolving technology,
> I can go on and on and on."
So does any govt, fool.
> Plagued by waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement,
None of that has a damned thing to do with the real fundamental problem, fool.
> the government must reconsider longstanding
> policies to sustain its superpower status
What a fucking wanker.
> and leave the country better positioned for the future. "Washington
> is out of control," Walker asserted, not blaming anyone in particular.
> "I mean this on a nonpartisan basis.
Yeah, you just like the sound of your own voice, fool.
> "We could eliminate every dime of waste...and this nation would
> still have large and growing structural deficits," Walker said.
Yep, that crap isnt the real problem.
> There are "too many layers, too many players, too
> many turf battles, and too many hardened silos."
Nope, too much pissed against the wall in Iraq, actually.
> In order to make the necessary changes, the government needs
> more leaders with courage, integrity, creativity, and stewardship
> and who are willing to reform entitlement policies, namely Social
> Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The government also needs
> to re-engineer the base of spending and re-evaluate tax policies.
Nope, just get out of Iraq and not do any more stupiditys like that.
<reams of mindless irrelevant rabitting on flushed where it belongs>
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> States will face a serious fiscal crisis in the future, said David
> Walker, Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability
> Office (GAO), at the Conference on Public Service & the Law dinner
> March 17.