David Walker was a former head of the Government Accountability Office under Presidents Clinton and Bush. He recently spoke out about the crippling US debt, pointing out that the national debt is far greater than what is understood — more than three times the amount.

Walker told radio host John Catsimatidis, “If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms,”

He further pointed out, “If you don’t keep your economy strong, and that means to be able to generate more jobs and opportunities, you’re not going to be strong internationally with regard to foreign policy, you’re not going to be able to invest what you need to invest in national defense and homeland security, and ultimately you’re not going to be able to provide the kind of social safety net that we need in this country.”

Walker also called for both sides to join together in order fix the problems and put aside partisan politics. Unfortunately, actions like proposed recent SSDI bailout only worsen the situation. It reallocates $150 billion over the next three years comes from the Social Security Trust Fund in order to rescue the nearly bankrupt SSDI Trust Fund. This obfuscates the reality of unfunded liabilities and kicks the can down the road.

Walker’s call to make hard choices and severely reform the burgeoning entitlement debt crisis is the only way to truly fix the future. It is refreshing to hear someone speak candidly about the problems everyone is afraid to face.