Managing Editor
A man who ran government accountability is demanding more of it.
David Walker, a 10-year veteran as U.S. Comptroller General and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, brings his message to Jacksonville this month and in brief, it’s this.
“Government has grown too big, promised too much and delivered too little.”
Walker said the United States has “strayed from the principles and values on which it was founded.
“The American people are starved for two things, the truth and leadership, and when they get the truth and they get the leadership, they respond favorably. And they don’t get enough of it,” he said.
Walker spoke with the Daily Record Monday about his presentations in Jacksonville. The titles indicate his focus.
At 7:30 p.m. May 24 at Jacksonville University, he will present “Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility.”
At noon May 25 at The River Club, he will present “The Deficit and Its Impact on America’s Business Competitiveness.”
Both speeches will be hosted by the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville. JU is co-hosting the evening event and The Gate Governors Club is co-hosting the lunch program.
Walker served as comptroller from 1998 to 2008, then resigned to join the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in Washington, D.C., as president and CEO. The foundation states that it is “dedicated to increasing public awareness of the nature and urgency of key fiscal challenges threatening America’s future and to accelerating action on them.”
Walker said Monday his presentations will be based on his book, “Comeback America,” which was released Jan. 12
According to a book summary, Walker warned Congress, and the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations that America faced a growing fiscal imbalance, largely because of demographic trends and rising health-care costs.
Walker said Monday that the country has been losing its worldwide status in finance, education and research.
“We have to quit relying on our sole superpower status,” he said.
Walker said that U.S. needs to take seriously the situation in Greece, which is facing an economic crisis and triggered an almost $1 trillion European Union plan to keep the crisis from spreading.
Without a change in direction, “our numbers will be where Greece’s are within 10 years. That is not that long,” he said.
“We are not exempt from the fundamental laws of prudent finance and we should quit acting like we are,” said Walker.
“The U.S. is below average for an industrial nation,” he said. “It will have to deliver major transformational change. We have to start soon before we lose the confidence of our foreign lenders.”
Walker said he will describe the problem and also talk about how to solve it.
“This is not a hopeless situation. There are solutions,” he said.
Solutions, he said, will take reasoned political decisions.
“The first three words of the Constitution are starting to come alive. ‘We the People,’” he said. “That is what it is going to take. Politicians are going to be held accountable.”
That accountability won’t happen with polar politics, though, he said.
“The solutions are in the sensible center. We are going to have to impose tough budget controls, we are going to have to reform our tax system, we are going to have to cut defense and other spending without compromising our national security. We are going to have to do all of those things,” he said.
Extreme views won’t work, he said, and will only serve to “deny and delay.”
The Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency, often called the “congressional watchdog.” Its charge is to investigate how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.
The head of GAO is the Comptroller General and is appointed to a 15-year term by the President from a slate of candidates Congress proposes.
When Walker resigned to take the Peterson position, he appointed Gene L. Dodaro as acting comptroller general on March 13, 2008. Dodaro will serve until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a successor from a list of candidates proposed by the Congress.
Walker has 15 years of federal service and also has more than 20 years of experience in private business, including 10 years as a partner and a global managing director for Arthur Andersen LLP.
Peter Peterson, creator of the foundation, is a retired founder of the Blackstone Group, a private equity group that buys companies in leveraged buyouts. Blackstone’s name surfaced recently in Jacksonville because it has been leading a group to buy Jacksonville Fidelity National Information Services.
Peterson pledged more than $1 billion to his foundation.
The Peterson Foundation has partnered with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the AmericaSpeaks National Town Hall Meeting on June 26 in more than 20 cities in a “nonpartisan discussion to find common ground.”
Jacksonville is not on the initial list of sites.
Walker said the Peterson foundation also surveyed 100 political and economic leaders. With a 60 percent response rate, “100 percent on both sides of the political aisle said that we are on an imprudent path” and felt something would be done within two years.
“The American people know, but need leadership before we reach a crisis,” he said.
For information about the presentations, visit www.worldaffairscounciljax.org.
356-2466