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General Walker Highlights My $455,000 Second Mortgage

By E.L. Lipman

C-SPAN's "Podcast of the Week," is a provocative appearance by the Comptroller General of the United States, David Walker, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Building upon his earlier "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour," General Walker argues that rising health care spending in the United States could potentially "sink the ship of state," as the Baby Boom Generation retires from the workforce. Warns Walker, the fiscal gap for the total liability of future payments related to the Medicare and Medicaid programs amounts to 53 Trillion dollars; or as Walker explains, a "de facto mortgage of $455,000 for every American household ? only with no house to back it up?."

Walker's concludes that "[t]he largest single domestic policy challenge that we face is the health care challenge; and that we are ultimately going to have reform our basic health care structure?." His prescription for reform includes "universal access to basic health care services," caps on the amount of federal health care spending, national best practices for health care and "to increase personal responsibility and accountability for an individual's own health and wellness."

A video of General Walker's remarks is accessible here, whereas an audio podcast is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on December 26, 2007 (boomark / email).