Letter: Gauging real cost from budget deficit

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 | 7:40 a.m.

David Broder's April 23 column in the Las Vegas Sun, "Perfect storm of fiscal ruin brewing," was a timely wake-up call for us all. His reference to the estimate by David Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, of $156,000 per person in the United States for the accrual deficit is mind boggling, as this represents approximately $45 trillion of accrual deficit for the country, roughly five times the official national debt.

Walker is quoted as stating in a briefing that the $760 billion accrual deficit (the accrual deficit for 2005) "amounts to $156,000 for every man, woman and child in America." The $760 billion itself amounts to something over $2,500 per person, so one is left to assume that Walker is referring to many years of accrual deficit.

Who better than Broder to interview Walker, to get a better understanding of the contributions of underfunding for Social Security, Medicare, military and civil service pensions and health care and of the official budget deficit to this massive total Accrual Deficit?

I would welcome a follow-up column by Broder, to give readers a more complete picture of the underfunding contributing to this total accrual deficit, in plenty of time for the 2006 elections, in time for readers to select candidates with the leadership and political courage, to quote David Walker, to "dig us out of this mess."

David Ewart, Henderson