Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility

Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility (Hardcover)







Authors David M. Walker

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Product Description
As comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—"the nation's top auditor"—Walker warned Congress and the administration as the federal surplus became a giant deficit under George W. Bush. As president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, he now works full-time to raise public awareness regarding mounting debt burdens being imposed on future generations. Comeback America is his crucial manifesto, a way for President Obama to end out-of-control government spending and reform our tax, retirement, health care, defense, and other systems—before it's too late.

Walker believes that by 2030, absent significant reforms to current government programs and policies, federal taxes could double from current levels, meaning less money and poorer education for kids—which will hurt families along with our nation's economic strength and position in the world. If our foreign creditors—such as China—decide to buy fewer of our Treasury bonds, interest rates will rise and cars and homes will become less affordable.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Comeback America shows how we can return to our founding principles of fiscal responsibility and stewardship for future generations. The book includes bold ideas to control spending, save Social Security, dramatically alter Medicare, and simplify the tax code—all taking into account the Obama Administration's current efforts, which receive never-before-published assessments both complimentary and critical.

Nonpartisan, nonideological, and filled with a love of the country its esteemed author has spent his life serving, Comeback America is a book for anyone interested in America's economic future—in other words, a book everyone should read.

Product Details
# Hardcover: 240 pages
# Publisher: Random House (January 12, 2010)
# Language: English

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Reviews Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility

David Walker is an accountant by trade; a certified one. He also served as Comptroller General and head of the Government Accountability Office. This is a voice that should be heeded. Maybe Walker should run for President?

The deficit problem has two dimensions, as this book clearly explains. The current deficits and debt are bad enough, marking steady deterioration in the government's fiscal position over the past decade and exacerbated by the current recession. The long-term fiscal gap, fed by a steady increase in "entitlement" outlays (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid), is worse. As of 9/30/09, the government (and by extension this country) was in a fiscal hole of some $63 trillion, a total of liabilities and unfunded promises so vast that it is hard to comprehend, which was "rising every second of every day."

Walker recommends starting the cure with Social Security. Its trust funds will run dry in 2037, and then require cutting benefit levels to 24% of current. He proposes to trim benefits for the middle and upper-income recipients (35% of retirees rely on Social Security for over 905 of their income), trim COLA increases, raise retirement ages, increase the cap on taxable Social Security wages, and require supplemental savings accounts totaling about 2-3% of payroll incomes.