Editorial: Straight talk about deficits

Monday, March 20, 2006 | 7:10 a.m.

U.S. Comptroller David M. Walker is participating in a national "Fiscal Wake-up Tour" led by the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group co-founded in 1992 by Warren Rudman, former Republican senator of New Hampshire, and the late Paul Tsongas, former Democratic senator of Massachusetts.

The Concord Coalition has for some time been trying to direct public attention toward the rising federal deficits and what they mean for future generations. Walker shares the coalition's concerns and is determined to raise the profile of this issue.

Walker, 54, was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to a 15-year term. In his position he heads the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress that tracks how the federal government spends taxpayers' dollars.

In an article last month published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Walker wrote that the government's current fiscal course "doesn't just threaten our future economy and quality of life, but also our long-term national security."

"Not enough people inside and outside Washington's Beltway understand the nature, timing, scope and magnitude of our mounting challenge," Walker continued.

Walker's alarm has been triggered by the Bush administration, which inherited surpluses, not deficits, from the Clinton administration. By the end of this July, however, the official deficit is expected to hit $423 billion. Walker says it would be more like $800 billion if the future cost of certain government programs were taken into account.

The message he is taking around to numerous cities is that the country's rising deficits, $8.2 trillion debt load and the projected costs of covering promised programs for aging baby boomers will nearly bankrupt the federal government within a generation if something isn't done now.

Instead of cutting taxes, as Bush is doing for the wealthy, Walker sees tax increases as an answer. He also believes that by educating the public about the pending crisis, support might be found for cutting billions from Medicaid, Social Security and the budgets of the Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department.

Even though we believe the federal government should keep, within reason, its program commitments, and spend appropriately for social services, national security and the military, we believe Walker is doing a valuable public service by bringing the issue of wildly escalating deficits to the fore. We hope it sparks public debates and becomes a major campaign issue in the presidential election of 2008.