America in 2017: Making Tough Choices Today Can Help Save Our Future

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indian, on January 26, 2007. From a fiscal perspective, the facts are clear, compelling, and undisputed. Unless we make changes, and soon, the United States is poised to enter a prolonged period of escalating deficits and rapidly mounting debt burdens. What's at stake is nothing less than our future economic growth, our future standard of living, and even our future domestic tranquillity and national security. Our recent lack of fiscal discipline has only made our challenge more difficult. Despite a drop in the annual budget deficit in 2006, our deficits remain imprudently high. But it's the government's long-term finances that are the real problem. Over the last six years alone, our nation's total liabilities and unfunded commitments, chiefly for Social Security and Medicare, have soared from about $20 trillion to about $50 trillion. Fifty trillion dollars translates to about $440,000 per American household. Keep in mind the median household income in America is less than $50,000 a year! They may not know it, but the typical American family now owes more than nine times their annual income. That's like having a mortgage but no house! While this burden will have to be paid off over many years, the amount continues to grow every day because of continued deficits, known demographic trends, and compounding interest costs. The only asset that some Americans have to address this burden is their American citizenship. Fortunately, U.S. citizenship gives individuals unparalleled opportunities to earn, invest, and reach their full human potential. What we've got brewing is a potent--and toxic--mix of ignorance, apathy, and inaction throughout our society. Unfortunately, too many American leaders and institutions suffer from the dual afflictions of myopia and tunnel vision. And too many individual Americans suffer from shortsightedness and self-centeredness. Our indifference in many areas, including fiscal discipline, cannot continue. If it does, it isn't a matter of "if" but "when" a crisis will occur-- and how bad it will be.