http://www.laborradio.org/node/4534Head of GAO: Changes in spending needed or economy could be paralyzed
The head of the Government Accountability Office warned in late September that if federal budgeting practices don’t change the country could be economically paralyzed in the next few decades. Speaking as part of the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, Comptroller General David M Walker warned that every year something isn’t done to change the direction in spending - the national debt grows by nearly $2 and $3 trillion dollars a year. The primary reason Walker suggests is Medicaid and Medicare growing increasingly more expensive as the cost of healthcare outpaces inflation. The Congressional Budget Office projects that Medicare - which costs four times as much as it did in 1970 - will become a quarter of the budget by 2030.