GAO comptroller: U.S. government is on a 'burning platform' of unsustainable policies and practices,

August 15, 2007 | Decline and Fall | U.S. comptroller general: America is Rome | by Justin Raimondo

Is America going the way of Rome? David Walker, the comptroller general of the U.S., has issued a report that basically answers in the affirmative: "The U.S. government is on a 'burning platform' of unsustainable policies and practices," Walker avers, including "fiscal deficits" and "overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon." If we continue on our present course, Walker warns, we are in for "dramatic" tax hikes, a radical reduction in government "services," and "the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of U.S. debt." The Chinese certainly concur with that last prediction.

"Sound familiar?" asks Walker. It ought to, he contends, because we are going down the path the ancient Romans took. There are, he says, "striking similarities," including "declining moral values and political civility at home, an overconfident and overextended military in foreign lands, and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government."

"In my view," says Walker, "it's time to learn from history and take steps to ensure the American Republic is the first to stand the test of time."

The GAO is as close to an objective, nonpartisan agency as the U.S. government – or any government – could create. ...