Budgeting a Nation
Comptroller General David Walker observed the country’s financial ledger for years. Now, a spiraling pattern of national debt accumulation has propelled him to the helm of a rescue committee.
By Forrest Glenn Spencer / Photography by Jonathan Timmes
For nearly 10 years, David M. Walker served as the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the General Accounting Office. Under two presidents and five Congresses, he served as the nation’s top accountant who would, in layman’s terms, review America’s financial ledger, examine assets and liabilities and report on America’s fiscal affairs. What he saw in those numbers worried him, and he began to raise the warning flag and speak out that a state of fiscal irresponsibility had permeated our nation’s leadership and was endangering our financial responsibilities.
He took his concerns to Congress, then spoke before citizens, decision-makers in the private sector, anyone who could make a change and everyone who had a stake in the developing financial crisis, one he claims can be prevented if the country acts now.
Today, Walker is president and chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a newly formed organization with a $1 billion war chest to address concerns pertaining to our nation’s financial sustainability.
Tell us more about the Foundation.
It’s funded almost exclusively by Peter G. Peterson, who was, among other things, secretary of commerce during the Nixon administration, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, CEO of several companies, cofounder of The Blackstone Group and also the former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Pete has written a number of books and has given many, many speeches about his concern of the financial future of the country. When he hit the jackpot last year—when Blackstone went public—he immediately dedicated to commit a majority of his net worth to create this foundation and alert a fight for America’s future.
What’s the theme or warning you’re telling us?
Visually, there’s a tsunami of spending that’s rapidly approaching our shores, and we still have people partying on the beach.
When you became Comptroller of the U.S., did you see that tsunami coming?
Understand this: I had a number of positions in government, one of which as public trustee of Social Security and Medicare. I have been used to looking long range for quite awhile, long before I got into that position. At the time I came into that position we had gone from large deficits to surpluses, and while we were facing long-range challenges in regards to Social Security and Medicare, it was not nearly as great nor as immediate. Plus, we had statutory budget controls in place that served to constrain elected officials from doing dumb things. Those budgetary constraints expired in 2002, and Washington has been totally out of control since then.
What are you doing to get your message out to the public?
There’s a documentary we purchased and was in theaters, “I.O.U.S.A.,” and it’s about America’s for-budget deficit savings balance of payments/trade and the biggest deficit of all: the leadership deficit. It presents a pretty clear, compelling picture [in a] non-partisan/non-ideological fashion about where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re headed and the need for the elected officials to start making tough choices in order to avoid a major economic disruption. I am one of many people who are in the film. We also have Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan, Paul O’Neill and Bob Rubin, Warren Buffett and Pete Peterson, Alice Rivlin, Sen. [Kent] Conrad, Sen. [Larry] Craig, Ron Paul, person-on-the-street interviews, historical clips, dynamite graphics. We present a very clear and compelling picture as to why we’ve got a problem and why we need to do something about it.
Are we past the point of no return? How worried should we be?
We haven’t passed the tipping point yet. But we will pass the tipping point around 2020 if we don’t get our act together. The fact [is] that we are in a $53 trillion financial hole that gets deeper $2 to $3 trillion per year, on autopilot, with a balanced budget, and unfortunately the budget deficits are getting worse, not better. I have said publicly for a long time that we need to do two big things: acknowledge that it’s not today’s deficits and today’s debts that’s the problem. The second thing is we need a capable and credible bipartisan commission to be able to make recommendations to the next president and the next Congress for an up or down vote on at least four things: statutory budget control, comprehensive social security reform, tax reform and healthcare reform.
Besides the film, in what other mediums are you getting the word out about your concerns?
We are doing a lot of things through the Internet and through traditional media. We’re funding the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, which is going around America, and I’ve been involved with that since 2005. We have many different things underway. We’re doing some things with particular interest to young people. We’re in discussion with a number of organizations about how we can form a partnership to be able to use media and mediums of particular interest to young people and get these messages out because they are the ones who are going to get the bill, yet they are not informed or involved as they otherwise might be. It’s important so their voice can be heard.
Where’s the leadership going to come from? The White House, Congress?
We need leadership in all sectors of our economy because it’s a problem not just in government. While the executive and legislative branches are coequal branches of government, while we need leadership from both, in the final analysis the country has only one chief executive officer, and that’s the president of the United States. We’re talking about heavy lifting here. You’ve got to be able to do that. It not only makes policy sense, but the process has integrity in order to make it politically feasible and in order to sustain that success over time.
Shifting gears: I understand you work in New York City, but still reside in Northern Virginia, and that you are a “student of history”?
I live on property that used to be owned by George Washington … in the Mount Vernon area of Alexandria. We can see the river from our backyard—better in the winter than the summer—but we can walk out our backyard and walk or jog or bike along the Potomac River. I am a history buff, and my wife is a member of the DAR [Daughters of the American Revolution], and I’m a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Our families have been in this country a long time.
What is the attraction of history for you?
I’ve always liked to read. I’ve been that way since I was I kid. I had no idea my roots went so far in the country. My wife whose mother was in genealogy for one Father’s Day present did research on my family and traced back my family well before the Revolution. I had at least three people who fought in the Revolution on my mother’s side, [who] died during the Revolution. We’re trying to do my father’s side. My family, the Walker side, came into Virginia in the 1680s.
Were they all Virginians?
No. Take my mother’s side. Of the three who fought in the Revolution, one was Delaware, one was from North Carolina, and one was from South Carolina.
Who were the Walkers? Farmers? Industrials? Government servants?
I know back through several generations. My father was the first Walker, in modern history, to graduate from college. I’m the second. His dad was a miner. On my mother’s side, her dad was a steelworker. As you go back to the Walker side, they were farmers or ministers. We’re not the rich Walkers, like Johnny Walker or Walker Bread.
But you are the first to hold a high position in federal government?
That is correct.
And you’re speaking out.
That I am.
What has history taught you?
I’ve always believed that those who don’t study history are disadvantaged because there’s a lot to be learned from history in order to do things right and not repeat the same mistakes.
(January 2009)
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