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Issachar
February 26th, 2008, 08:09 PM
I can't believe I am having such a hard time finding a more common source for this. It should not be buried.

The head of the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress announced his resignation Friday, citing "real limitations" on what he could do.

David Walker, 51, a respected voice on fiscal matters, said he was making an early departure from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to head a new public interest foundation.

"As Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO, there are real limitations on what I can do and say in connection with key public policy issues, especially issues that directly relate to GAO's client -- the Congress," Walker said in a statement.

He did not elaborate but Walker last year issued an unusually downbeat assessment of his country's future in a report that drew parallels with the end of the Roman empire.

He had warned that the US government was 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 was not taken soon.

There were "striking similarities" between America's current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, he had said.

These included "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."

"This was a very difficult decision for me," Walker said Friday of his decision to leave the GAO, which he joined in November for what was to be a 15-year term of office. His resignation would be effective March 12. more (http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Top_US_accountability_officer_quits_02152008.html)

Hopefully he will be able to get the word out even more effectively after this retirement.

Issachar

SummerSailing81
February 26th, 2008, 09:21 PM
Smart man, getting out before his is one of the governmental heads that's going to roll when this financial disaster comes crashing down on all of us! We're like deer caught in headlights - we see it coming, but are too paralyzed to do something to get out of the way.

sherrimae
February 26th, 2008, 11:37 PM
Wow! It sure didn't take him long to decide our country's financial situation is in pretty bad shape. He must have concluded that there was nothing he could do to change the situation.

Nova
February 27th, 2008, 07:39 AM
I saw an interview with him on Glenn Beck last week. Walker's reports were one of the things that caused me to serious contemplate where our country is going.

Look at this article from March of last year.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/28/federal.debt/

willow
February 27th, 2008, 08:08 AM
Yeah, we look like ancient Rome alright. Scary. Sad too.