GAO chief blasts federal lawmakers for ignoring elder issues
The nation’s chief accountability officer scolded the federalgovernment Monday for avoiding problems with Social Security andMedicare, criticizing the existing benefits systems as outdated forbaby boomers moving toward retirement.
The “demographic tidal wave” of retirements will place a heftystrain on taxpayers unless Congress imposes spending caps on itself andrestructures some entitlement programs, U.S. Comptroller General DavidWalker said at a conference on the nation’s elderly.
“This wave will not recede, and we are not prepared,” said Walker,head of the Government Accountability Office, the congressional officethat conducts audits and reviews government efficiency.
In a speech to delegates at the White House Conference on Aging,which is held once a decade, Walker warned that such changes will befar more difficult to enact in the future, when older Americans becomea larger proportion of the voting population.
The consequences of inaction would grow as well, he said. By 2040,balancing the federal budget would require either a 60 percent cut infederal spending or tax increases that would more than double thecurrent tax burden, according to projections by the GAO.
President Bush’s attempts this year to overhaul Social Securityfoundered because retirees feared that his plan to create privateaccounts would undermine the popular program.
Henry Aaron, a senior economist at the liberal-leaning BrookingsInstitution, said the doomsday scenarios projected by some SocialSecurity reformists were overblown.
“The problem is really rather small and can be dealt with quitereadily,” using modest spending cuts, tax increases and changes toeligibility requirements, he said.
Walker’s recommendations for Social Security included pay-as-you-gorules for spending and automatic cuts in the event of budget overruns.
Just as important, he said, are changes to Medicare and Medicaid,the nation’s health-care programs for the elderly and poor. To sustainthe widely used programs, he said, the government might considerraising the age of eligibility for Medicare and increasing the incomefloor for Medicaid.
Walker spoke at the White House Conference on Aging.