By Benjamin Keeple
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Saturday, September 29, 2007
MANCHESTER – U.S. Comptroller General David Walker yesterday reaffirmed his support for legislation that would form a bipartisan commission to overhaul the nation's federal spending, while other experts also said good things about the idea.
Walker, who heads the non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office, made his comments during an appearance of the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour" in Manchester, in which he and other public-policy analysts warned of long-term financial challenges facing the government due to unfunded liabilities related to Social Security and Medicare.
"No less than the future of our country, the future of our economy, our standard of living and our national security is at stake," Walker said.
According to Walker, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid face a $50 trillion funding gap due to a combination of rising health care costs and demographic changes. As the baby boomers retire, the ratio of retirees to workers will drop from 3-1 now to 2-1 in 2030, putting strains on the programs that will require some sort of solution: whether raising taxes, cutting benefits or a mix of both.
"$50 trillion is 95 percent of the net worth of every American - including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett," Walker said.
Legislation now in the U.S. Senate, sponsored by U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., would set up a task force to look at funding issues, ranging from taxes to Social Security. A similar bill has also been introduced in the House.
In the Conrad-Gregg bill, the proposed commission would be run along similar lines as the panel that examines closing military bases: Congress would have to approve or reject its ideas without changing them.
Yesterday, Walker reaffirmed his support for the legislation and encouraged those in attendance to support it. He also said it was critical for New Hampshire residents, as voters in the first primary state, to focus on these issues now to increase the chance the next President would deal with them.
The idea also drew support from other speakers at yesterday's forum.
"In a rational world, we wouldn't need another commission to tell us what we already know. But the political world isn't rational," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a non-partisan group focused on fiscal policy and the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour's organizer. "I think it's got more potential than some of those blue-ribbon commissions that we've had in the past."
"In general, the commission model is probably the best way to address Social Security and Medicare's looming bankruptcy, because it removes some of the politics from the process," said Brian Riedl, the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
One obstacle to any reform measures, however, is that many people don't have faith in their elected leadership.
"Rebuilding trust is key. It's the No. 1 objective," said Heidi Gantwerk of California-based Viewpoint Learning Inc., which has conducted focus groups on the issues.
Some observers also wondered whether Congress would act on such a bill this year.
"I would be surprised if it moved all the way to the president's desk," said Paul Cullinan, research director for the Budget for National Priorities Project at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think-tank in Washington, D.C.
Walker and his cohorts spoke yesterday at a lunch meeting of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. The event, which attracted more than 100 business leaders, was held at the Derryfield restaurant on Mammoth Road.