GAO chief warns economic disaster looms

This is the problem that scares me the most about our country's current state of affairs. We can all argue about how to fight terrorism and extremism all we want, but it's hard to do that from a place of bankruptcy or where China is our national banker.

The last 6 years have been nothing short of an abject fiscal train wreck, with our national government spending uncontrolled and unmonitored amounts of my children's future earnings and tax dollars.

On financial matters, our country is being destroyed for short term political gain. This must change, and the only ones who can do it are the voters.

Vote for change in 10 days. The future of our nation depends on it.

__________________________________________


Photo from the AP of GAO Comptroller General David Walker

(USA Today/AP) AUSTIN — David Walker sure talks like he's running for office. "This is about the future of our country, our kids and grandkids," the comptroller general of the United States warns a packed hall at Austin's historic Driskill Hotel. "We the people have to rise up to make sure things get changed."
But Walker doesn't want, or need, your vote this November. He already has a job as head of the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress that audits and evaluates the performance of the federal government.

Basically, that makes Walker the nation's accountant-in-chief. And the accountant-in-chief's professional opinion is that the American public needs to tell Washington it's time to steer the nation off the path to financial ruin.

The Plan - Big Ideas for America

Coeur d'Alene's own Bruce Reed, along with Rep. Rahm Emanuel, has written a book entitled "The Plan - Big Ideas for America". It's a good read, and actually talks about things that work and political ideas that matter. Yes, it's partisan - they are both Democrats - but I felt the book was accessible to non-Democrats as well.

The book can be purchased here on Amazon, or maybe at the local library, too.

It's worth investing an afternoon or two to read people talking about the future, about ideas, and about hope and optimism.

________________________________________________________________

"Strip away the job titles and party labels, and you will find two tribes of people in Washington: political Hacks and policy Wonks. Hacks come to Washington because anywhere else they'd be bored to death. Wonks come here because nowhere else could they bore so many to death.

After two decades in Washington, we have come to the conclusion that the gap between Republicans and Democrats is nothing compared to the one between these two tribes. We should know. When we began working together in the Clinton White House, we came from different tribes -- one of us a Hack, the other a Wonk. (We're not telling which.) We made a deal to teach each other the secrets, quirks, and idioms of our respective sects.

Although Hacks have never been in short supply in our nation's capital, the rise of one-party rule in Washington over the past four years unleashed an all-out Hack attack. Every issue, every debate, every job opening was seen as an opportunity to gain partisan advantage. Internal disagreement was stifled, independent thought discouraged, party discipline strictly enforced -- and that's just how they treated their friends."
________________________________________________________________

"The secret to victory isn't simply better tactics: stronger turnout, a better ground game, or, so help us, even sharper attack ads. Americans are looking for answers. Everything else is just politics. "