The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GA0) is our nation’s fiscal watch dog. Congress expects this agency to help it meet its ‘constitutional responsibilities’. At least that’s what it says on their website. GAO seems to be doing its job, however Congress doesn’t seem to be listening. What follows is a brief summary of testimony that was given to Congress only a few days ago.
GAO has for many years warned that our nation is on an imprudent and unsustainable fiscal path. During the past 3 years, the Comptroller General has traveled to 25 states as part of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. Members of this diverse group of policy experts agree that finding solutions to the nation’s long-term fiscal challenge will require bipartisan cooperation, a willingness to discuss all options, and the courage to make tough choices. At the request of Chairman Conrad and Senator Gregg, the Comptroller General discussed the long-term fiscal outlook, our nation’s huge health care challenge, and the shrinking window of opportunity for action.
As we enter 2008, what we call the long-term fiscal challenge is not in the distant future. Already the first members of the baby boom generation have filed for early Social Security retirement benefits–and will be eligible for Medicare in only 3 years. Simulations by GAO, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and others all show that despite a 3-year decline in the budget deficit, we still face large and growing structural deficits driven primarily by rising health care costs and known demographic trends. Under any plausible scenario, the federal budget is on an imprudent and unsustainable path. Rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem; they are our nation’s number one fiscal challenge. Growth in health-related spending is the primary driver of the fiscal challenges facing the state and local governments. Unsustainable growth in health care spending is a system wide challenge that also threatens to erode the ability of employers to provide coverage to their workers and undercut our ability to compete in a global marketplace. Addressing the unsustainability of health care costs is a societal challenge that calls for us as a nation to fundamentally rethink how we define, deliver, and finance health care in both the public and the private sectors. The passage of time has only worsened the situation: the size of the challenge has grown and the time to address it has shrunk. The longer we wait the more painful and difficult the choices will become, and the greater the risk of a very serious economic disruption.
None of this should come as a surprise to us. Yet, while we’ve been talking about this for many years more promises are made with wealth that doesn’t exist and far too many Americans believe that the government will provide them succor when in fact this is a promise that cannot be kept.
The implications of the GAO’s warnings are far reaching and almost beyond comprehension. What they are really saying is that our own government will be unable to keep the promises that it is making without us accepting personal cost and responsibility, now or sometime in the future.
In many ways the GAO is delivering the same message that we do when we talk to clients about planning for their personal futures. Some choose to do so and others do not. Many in the latter group do so because they consider State and Federal programs to be the safety net of first resort, not last. This may be a fatal mistake on their part.
Today election day; take your franchise seriously.