David M. Walker, the nation's top accountant, is touring the country to warn Americans about the consequences of a federal debt he says is on an unsustainable course. Walker, who heads the General Accountability Office (GAO), has visited college campuses, spoken to lawmakers in Washington and toured 19 states in the last year and a half.
He plans to continue through next year and is focusing on states that could affect the 2008 presidential race, in hopes that candidates will heed his message. "If [the candidates] don't make [the debt] one of their top three priorities, in my opinion, they don't deserve to be president and we can't afford for them to be president," he told CNN.
The federal debt has soared during the last two decades -- from $2.13 trillion in 1986, to $5.22 trillion in 1996, and $8.51 trillion in 2006. The federal debt now stands near $9 trillion. Click for running figure
The way programs such as Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are structured, the government will incur an additional debt of $50 trillion during the next 20 years, according to GAO figures.
The $50 trillion total amounts to about $440,000 per American household, Walker said.
[Excerpt of an article by Kyle Almond, CNN]
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