U.S. headed off economic cliff

Former U.S. Comptroller General under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush David M. Walker said the U.S. needs to “get our financial house in order.”

Talking about the bailout package, Walker said the government gave the Treasury Department $700 billion not for what they knew, but “for what they didn’t know.” Walker added that American citizens were not initially okay with the bailout package because it “overreached and under-communicated.” He said the American people were not given reason as to why this was being done.

Reacting to the presidential candidates’ economic proposals, Walker said both candidates would make the national debt worse. He said both would do “zip” in digging the U.S. out of its current fiscal hole.

Walker said it is possible that the subprime loan crisis could spread to the government. He warned that if it did, “No one’s going to bail out America.” To avoid this possibility, he recommended the next president create a “credible, capable, bipartisan fiscal commission.”