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Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned
Financial Times ^ | August 14, 2007 | By Jeremy Grant

Posted on 08/13/2007 5:35:11 PM PDT by Sir_Humphrey

The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”..

“Sound familiar?” Mr Walker said. “In my view, it’s time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time.”.

Mr Walker’s views carry weight because he is a non-partisan figure in charge of the Government Accountability Office, often described as the investigative arm of the US Congress..

While most of its studies are commissioned by legislators, about 10 per cent – such as the one containing his latest warnings – are initiated by the comptroller general himself..

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Walker said he had mentioned some of the issues before but now wanted to “turn up the volume”. Some of them were too sensitive for others in government to “have their name associated with”..

“I’m trying to sound an alarm and issue a wake-up call,” he said. “As comptroller general I’ve got an ability to look longer-range and take on issues that others may be hesitant, and in many cases may not be in a position, to take on..

“One of the concerns is obviously we are a great country but we face major sustainability challenges that we are not taking seriously enough,” said Mr Walker, who was appointed during the Clinton administration to the post, which carries a 15-year term..

The fiscal imbalance meant the US was “on a path toward an explosion of debt”. .

“With the looming retirement of baby boomers, spiralling healthcare costs, plummeting savings rates and increasing reliance on foreign lenders, we face unprecedented fiscal risks,” said Mr Walker, a former senior executive at PwC auditing firm..

Current US policy on education, energy, the environment, immigration and Iraq also was on an “unsustainable path”..

“Our very prosperity is placing greater demands on our physical infrastructure. Billions of dollars will be needed to modernise everything from highways and airports to water and sewage systems. The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a sobering wake-up call.” .

Mr Walker said he would offer to brief the would-be presidential candidates next spring. .

“They need to make fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity one of their top priorities. If they do, I think we have a chance to turn this around but if they don’t, I think the risk of a serious crisis rises considerably”.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2late; aliens; barbarianinvaders; education; energy; fallofrome; godsgravesglyphs; illegalaliens; immigration; romanempire; sustainability; wanker
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To: 353FMG
One of the many differences between us and Rome is that the latter did not have a death wish while we do. It is called globalization, multiculturalism, PC and the desire for diversity and not unity.

Well said. Some people nowadays seem to think that the Latin motto on our coins, e pluribus unum, should be translated, "out of one [people], many [cultures]."

41 posted on 08/13/2007 6:46:14 PM PDT by AmericanExceptionalist (Democrats believe in discussing the full spectrum of ideas, all the way from far left to center-left)
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To: Sir_Humphrey

Duncan Hunter will fix much of what any of the other candidates wouldn’t and couldn’t.


42 posted on 08/13/2007 6:48:05 PM PDT by familyop (cbt. engr. (cbt.)--has-been)
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To: Sir_Humphrey
Can this really happen to us on our watch?

Yes and it will, unless a major effort is made to stop it.

43 posted on 08/13/2007 6:48:30 PM PDT by sauropod (You can’t spell crap without the AP in it.)
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To: Sir_Humphrey
declining moral values and political civility at home

Yes, without question

an over-confident

NO EFFIN' WAY. This guy has NO understanding of military history or operations. The American military, with as few hands as it has, relatively speaking, is the strongest military force EVER. Period. It's due to technology, training, logistics, and morale.

and over-extended military in foreign lands

Maybe, but only because they haven't been allowed to fight and decisively win the war. This is due to political correctness. Otherwise they'd be home.

and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government

YES, YES, YES, YES . . .

44 posted on 08/13/2007 6:50:12 PM PDT by Hardastarboard (DemocraticUnderground.com is an internet hate site.)
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To: AmericanExceptionalist
The US government is on a “burning platform” of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.

David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”.

These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt

I see a lot of knee jerking from country club Republicans. Walker sees skyrocketing taxes as a problem not a solution. I agree completely with what I read here. I am so sick of boomers having a huge party and sticking us with all the bills.

45 posted on 08/13/2007 6:54:19 PM PDT by bluetone006 (Peace - or I guess war if given no other option)
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To: Sir_Humphrey
"chronic healthcare underfunding..."

Did the Romans have government healthcare?

46 posted on 08/13/2007 6:55:22 PM PDT by Peter W. Kessler (Dirt is for racing... asphalt is for getting there.)
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To: ggekko60506

How would that work (in non-economic-major terms)? Turned what you said over for several minutes but it’s not getting anywhere.


47 posted on 08/13/2007 6:58:19 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
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To: Sir_Humphrey
Can't quite agree with the comptroller...

1) fiscal deficits: lower taxes some more and I bet revenues go up (Laffer Curve), further get our unfunded liabilities on the books (social security future payouts) and you can do this yourself Mr. Comptroller. If I ran a business with the accounting standards the Feds use, the IRS would put us out of business. Also, allow citizens to keep their own social security contribution and invest it. That will provide a better rate of return than the current system.

2) chronic healthcare underfunding: the US spends more of it's GDP than Britain, France and Canada do. We're not underfunded at all. If anything, we need to introduce more competition, and that can be done with tort reform.

3) immigration: agreed, illegal immigration is a bad deal for citizens, relatively inexpensive means to force illegals back to their home countries exist - prosecute those who hire illegals, that will slow things down quite a bit, and the Feds already have everything they need to do the job

4) overseas military commitments: Japan, Germany and other first world countries need to step up and pay for their own defense.

Easy huh?
48 posted on 08/13/2007 6:58:41 PM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: ggekko60506
>I have a solution for that problem but it wouldn’t be pretty.

So do I, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

behold, a pale horse.


49 posted on 08/13/2007 7:02:42 PM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Peter W. Kessler
The healthcare underfunding is a bizare one. Military commitments can be overextended. Fiscall responsibility is needed. He did mention immigration.

But how did he miss over-taxation and corruption? I can tell you corruption is eating at the soul of this nation, it is widespread.

50 posted on 08/13/2007 7:03:46 PM PDT by Williams
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To: bluetone006

Those boomers pais those same “bills” all of their lives.

Nobody gave them a free ride in the day when making a living was a Hell of a lot harder than it is now.

They paid their dues all of their lives.


51 posted on 08/13/2007 7:05:24 PM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: livius
If we didn’t have a flood of immigrants, we’d be underpopulated and with a vast imbalance tipped towards the aging population, thanks to 40 years of abortion.

Currently, the total fertility rate of the US is 2.09 children per female or just at replacement level. Add to that 1.1 million LEGAL immigrants a year and another 500,000 to 1 million illegal aliens annually and you arrive at an annual population growth of .89%, among the highest of all developed countries on earth.

Since 1970 we have added 100 million people and will add another 62 million in the next 23 years or the equivalent of the current population of the UK. By 2050, we will have a population of 420 million. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by 2050, which is quite a change from 1950 when Hispanics comprised 1% of the population.

Bureau of the Census Population Projections 2000-2050

Rome was underpopulated, relative to its empire; Spain at the time of its invasion by the Muslims was extremely underpopulated; and just about any place that has ever fallen has had a severe drop in population prior to its destruction.

The US is not going to experience any "severe drop in population" any time soon, i.e., during the 21st Century. Just the opposite. And the demographics of the country are changing rapidly with half of the children between the ages of 0-5 minorities. Demography is destiny. With the highest high school dropout rates being Hispanics and blacks and Hispanics having a birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population, there is reason for concern about the future.

Bush's America: Roach Motel by Ann Coulter

Path to national suicide

We need immigrants: we have to make them Americans, though, and that is where we are failing. And that’s our fault (permitting “bilingual ed,” separate language facilities for every group, special rights for Muslims, etc.).

Yes, we need immigrants. The question is how many and what criteria we use to bring them in. By 2050, non-Hispanic whites will be 50% of the population, down from the 89% in 1965 when the National Origins act of 1924 was replaced by Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, a Ted Kennedy sponsored bill. The challenge will be to retain our national identity, language and culture with such an unprecedented mass migration of millions of immigrants, most of whom come from Latin America. Can we assimilate such numbers or will we become Balkanized along linguistic and cultural lines? Unless we change our legal immigration policies and eliminate extended chain migration, anchor babies, the visa lottery program, and go to a merit based system of immigration that serves the interests of this country, we will be finished as a nation.

The Hispanic Challenge By Samuel P. Huntington

52 posted on 08/13/2007 7:06:04 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Sir_Humphrey

this guy is so incoherent

Calling for socialized medicine while decrying unsustainable entitlement programs makes the typical leftist logical sense.


53 posted on 08/13/2007 7:08:17 PM PDT by pacelvi (In general, Democrats are the only real reason to vote for Republicans. - Thomas Sowell)
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To: txflake

Hi, sweetie.


54 posted on 08/13/2007 7:17:23 PM PDT by Old Sarge (This tagline in memory of FReeper 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub)
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To: Peter W. Kessler
Did the Romans have government healthcare?

I don't know how medical services were distributed but it's been found that they had amazingly modern tools and techniques more similar to our era than not. Specialists in anesthesia, surgery, dental science...along with tools and techniques similar to our modern standards separated by an 1800 year dark age...

The wonderful thing about the Romans is not questioning if what they had compares to we have - its wondering if what we have now compares to what they achieved with far less science, engineering and mathematics.

I didn't take this screen name on fool's folly.

55 posted on 08/13/2007 7:21:51 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
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To: Sir_Humphrey

Another clinton sleeper being called out for a hit. Iraq is going well so they cannot use that against them - have to come up with new problems...from someone everyone will see as a member of the administration.


56 posted on 08/13/2007 7:43:00 PM PDT by jim-x (God help America survive its enemies within.)
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To: Sir_Humphrey

I remember WW2.


57 posted on 08/13/2007 7:47:53 PM PDT by MaxMax (God Bless America)
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To: Sir_Humphrey

>>>Can this really happen to us on our watch?

As Calpernia, I will speak as the resident expert on Rome.

It ain’t happenin’.


58 posted on 08/13/2007 7:50:10 PM PDT by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
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To: Sir_Humphrey

The Comptroller General said that the nation’s current course on immigration is unsustainable... and then didn’t say what he meant by that. Does he mean we need more illegal aliens, or fewer? He doesn’t say!

I hate that kind of inprecise thinking. The guy’s a doofus.


59 posted on 08/13/2007 8:04:42 PM PDT by Poundstone
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To: AmericanInTokyo

So noted.


60 posted on 08/13/2007 8:10:07 PM PDT by Siobhan (America without God is dead.)
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