Fmr Comptroller: US Debt Far Higher Than Thought
The government's debt is actually far higher than officials say it is, according to a warning from former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.
Walker served as head of the Government Accountability Office under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
"If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it's growing automatically absent reforms," Walker said.
The Hill reports Walker made his remarks on a morning radio show in New York called "The Cats Roundtable."
Walker pointed out that a growing national debt hurts the economy and he said Americans have "lost touch with reality" when it comes to spending.
He said Democrats and Republicans need to put aside partisan politics and unite to fix the problem.
"You can be a Democrat, you can be a Republican, you can be unaffiliated, you can be whatever you want, but your duty of loyalty needs to be to country rather than to party, and we need to solve some of the large, known, and growing problems that we have," he said.
