GAO chief repeats calls for greater fiscal responsibility

Comptroller General David Walker suggested Monday that Congress bring back budget controls, institute discretionary spending caps and impose mandatory spending triggers to limit the growing deficit.

Walker said future generations will be burdened with unmanageable taxes if nothing is done to pay down the $43.3 trillion debt. "There's no way you're going to grow your way out of this problem," he said.

Walker also suggested implementing measures to evaluate the usefulness of government spending, noting that the government spends in excess of $2 trillion each year but has no way "to understand what's working and what's not working." Walker focused on escalating mandatory spending costs, notably Medicare and Medicaid, which now make up 19 percent of the all federal spending, up from 9 percent in 1984.

"A vast majority of our federal government is on autopilot," Walker said, adding that budget deficits cannot be blamed on the war in Iraq, the war against terrorism or Hurricane Katrina relief.

And the pressure on the government only will grow by 2011 as the baby-boom generation turns 65 and becomes Medicare eligible. The 2003 drug benefit alone will cost $851 billion from 2006 to 2014, according to CBO estimates.

"If we don't change our path, there will be an adverse effect on economic growth, quality of life and national security," he said.