Comeback America Page 22
Are there more elected officials calling for “nonpartisan approaches” and fewer calling for “bipartisan approaches”? (That’s the kind of exhortation we need, reflecting the truth that political independents represent a large and growing portion of the American electorate.)
Their attitudes and words of leadership are important, but their actions are far more important. As our financial situation deteriorates, the bottom line is: What are our leaders doing about it? I have proposed several specific policy reforms and extraordinary processes that would help us solve our fiscal crisis, and we should hold Washington officials’ feet to the fire. Here are some more questions we should ask and keep asking.
Policy Reforms
Have government leaders recognized that spending more money and granting more tax preferences will not necessarily achieve more positive outcomes?
Have we imposed statutory budget controls that will help to put us on a more prudent and sustainable fiscal path?
Have we reformed the Social Security system to make it more solvent, sustainable, secure, and oriented to encourage more savings?
Have we reformed our Medicare, Medicaid, and health care systems to control costs, provide a basic level of universal coverage, improve quality and consistency, and enhance personal responsibility and accountability?
If a health care reform bill has passed, does it meet the tests of fiscal responsibility outlined in this book?
Have we reformed our tax system to make it simpler, fairer, more enforceable, and more competitive, while generating adequate revenues to pay our bills and deliver on the federal government’s promises?
If we haven’t done the above, have we at least formed a Fiscal Future Commission or some other strategy designed to make possible the government’s promises—such as the “grand bargain” that President Obama has spoken of, a comprehensive agreement to reimpose statutory budget controls and reform entitlement programs and our health care and tax systems, where everything is on the table? If so, is the commission properly structured and empowered to achieve positive results?
Government Reforms
The overriding question is: Have we defined and implemented an approach to transform the way the federal government does business that includes safeguards to ensure that our representatives behave in a fiscally responsible way (for example, a Baseline Review Commission)?
Has government become more future focused and results oriented?
Are we analyzing our nation’s performance—in everything from military preparation to social services—based on clear measures of how well we have done and whether we are making progress? How do we compare to other industrialized nations on the quality and affordability of our services and the well-being of our people?
Does the federal government finally have a comprehensive and integrated strategic plan to help guide us rationally into the future?
Have we designed and implemented a set of key national indicators to help improve performance, enhance accountability, and stimulate citizen engagement?
Has the Pentagon begun to focus on current and future threats and put its appetite in check while improving its business practices and accountability to the public?
Has the federal government begun to rationalize its pay and benefit programs to make them more realistic and responsible?
Political Reforms
Is the ideological gap between the politicians and the people getting bigger or smaller?
Have we enacted redistricting, campaign finance, and term limit reforms for federal elected offices?
Do we have more or fewer career politicians?
In addition to asking tough questions and demanding answers, we must recognize that all of us will need to assume more responsibility for our own financial future. Eventually, the government will have to make tough choices, and when it does, the younger you are and the better off you are financially, the more you will be affected.
Finally, of course, come the questions we all should be asking ourselves: Are we doing our part to be more responsible financially? Are we also becoming more active in discharging our civic responsibilities—to make our nation’s leaders more responsible and accountable?
This country has faced major challenges in the past, and we Americans have always risen to address them once we have made up our minds to do so. I believe that we will rise to meet our fiscal challenges today. That’s why I called this book “Comeback America.”
We don’t have any time to waste. We must reexamine what the government does and how the government does business. We must focus on the future and on achieving real results. We must be a leader in the world but also become a better partner for progress with other countries. We must work harder across our political divisions and the ideological divides in Washington to do what is right for America’s and our families’ futures. And yes, we must renew the power of the people and rejuvenate our democracy.
That’s a broad agenda and it won’t be easy, but if we start soon and put ourselves on a prudent path, the American Dream will stay on track. Our future can be better than our past. It’s up to us, as Theodore Roosevelt always insisted. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better,” he famously said. “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
Join me and my colleagues at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation in the arena as we fight for America’s future. Help us to promote responsibility and accountability today in order to create more opportunity tomorrow. Sign up under the Citizen Action section of our website at www.pgpf.org. You can also propose your own solutions and monitor the key questions outlined in this Epilogue at www.comebackamericathebook.com.
Yes, America is a great nation, but as you have discovered in this book, we are not as great as many of us think we are. It’s time for us to wake up—and wake up America—to the lethal threat of our own fiscal irresponsibility. If that awakening to truth and to the national interest spreads throughout the country, it will awaken our public servants to action in Washington. We don’t have any time to waste. Close the cover or turn off the reader and put this book down, fellow citizens. You’ve studied the problems and solutions. Now let’s get to work. And as we do, let us not forget the words of John Adams: “Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!”
Acknowledgments
Writing a book is a major undertaking no matter the circumstances. It’s an even bigger undertaking when you have another full-time job that involves being CEO of a new start-up entity—the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Given these realities, some loved ones make sacrifices, as quality time is lost due to the author’s commitment to writing the book. In this case, Mary, my wife, is the one who has sacrificed the most, and I cannot thank her enough for her understanding and support.
Writing this book in a timely and high-quality manner required a true team effort. A number of people deserve recognition, but I have space to acknowledge only a few. First and foremost, I would like to thank Steven Strasser, who is a professor of journalism at the City University of New York. Steven’s writing and editing skills were invaluable as we partnered to make this book a reality. He was not an expert on the subjects covered, but he proved to be a very quick study and his journalistic skills and layperson’s perspective helped improve the readability of the book. Tim Bartlett, my editor at Random House, also lent his considerable editorial expertise and helped to ensure its timely publication. Tim’s assistant, Jessie Waters, performed countless tasks large and small to keep the book moving along.
Gail Ross was my literary agent. She provided valuable advice at every stage of the process, from helping shape my original ideas for the book to securing interest from a number of first-rate publishers, to helping me find Steve Strasser, to reading drafts of the manuscript, to flying to New York to attend marketing planning meetings. But most of all, Gail believed in the book’s message and fought tirelessly to help
me get it out.
Several individuals helped me in producing and referencing this book. The key players at the Peterson Foundation included Kathleen Benanti, who is my executive assistant. She spent many hours working with me writing, researching, and editing. She is my right arm at work. Pete Peterson, Gene Steuerle, Susan Tanaka, and Jackie Leo contributed their thoughts to certain topics addressed in the book. Matt Helm, Tim Roeper, and Sarah Williams all contributed considerable time and effort to researching and referencing. Others at the foundation, including Myra Sung, provided promotional or other support.
I’d also like to thank all the other people on the Random House team who worked to bring out the book, including London King and Maria Braeckel, my publicists; Avideh Bashirrad and Debbie Aroff, who put together a terrific marketing plan; Benjamin Dreyer and Evan Camfield, who handled a crash schedule without batting an eye; Paolo Pepe and Tom McKeveny, who designed a particularly striking jacket for the book; Victoria Wong, who created the book’s elegant interior design; and Jennifer Hershey and Tom Perry, whose early and sustained interest in the book helped to make Random House my choice.
A number of other persons contributed their thoughts or provided other support that served to enhance the content and ensure the accuracy of the material contained in this book. They include Fred Bergsten, Steve Weisman, Gene Dodaro, Sallyanne Harper, Dan Gordon, Tim Bowling, Chris Mihm, Helen Hsing, Marjorie Kanoff, Paul Francis, Susan Irving, Barbara Bovberg, Jim White, Butch Hinton, Beth Miller, Laura Kopelson, and Stephan Richter.
I would also like to thank Pete Peterson for his many years of commitment to promoting federal fiscal responsibility and for the opportunity that he and the other directors of the foundation (Joan Ganz-Cooney and Michael Peterson) provided me to continue my efforts to help fight for America’s future as the first head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Pete is a personal inspiration, a model statesperson from the business community, and a case study in the American Dream come true. Our country needs more people like him.
Finally, I’d like to thank my parents, Dave and Dot, for how they raised me and for their encouragement, along with that of others, to write this book. I have been told that it is very timely and thought-provoking. My hope is that it will help to create a movement that will make the title Comeback America resonate throughout this great country so that our collective future can be better than our past.
Six Simple Steps to Make
Comeback America a Reality
Now that you’ve read this book, and hopefully recommended it to others, what else should you consider doing?
GET INFORMED AND INVOLVED
Go to www.comebackamericathebook.com, which has a citizen action center where you can take advantage of all of the information and links noted therein.
Be sure that you register to vote and exercise your right (and your privilege) to vote.
Let your voice be heard on key issues in town hall meetings and other forums, through letters to the editor, articles, and opinion pieces, and otherwise. Ask tough questions based on the facts and hold your elected representatives accountable for what they do, and what they fail to do, to address the large, known, and growing challenges facing our nation.
LEAD BY EXAMPLE
Have a personal budget and financial plan, be sure that they consider the issues outlined in this book, and stick to them.
Plan, save, invest, preserve them for their intended purpose, avoid excess consumption, and make prudent use of credit in connection with your own financial affairs.
Be responsible in connection with your own health and wellness (e.g., diet, exercise, personal habits).
About the Author
DAVID M. WALKER has over thirty-six years of experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors and currently is president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He has received three presidential appointments, one each from Reagan, Bush 41, and Clinton, including as the seventh comptroller general of the United States and CEO of the U.S. Government Accountability Office from 1998 to 2008. Walker is a frequent speaker, writer, commentator, and congressional witness and has appeared in many major publications and on a significant number of television networks, cable channels, and radio programs. He is chairman of the United Nations Independent Audit Advisory Committee, serves on several boards and advisory committees, and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Trilateral Commission.
Copyright © 2009 by Peter G. Peterson Foundation
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walker, David M. (David Michael).
Comeback America : turning the country around and restoring fiscal responsibility / David M. Walker.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-976-5
1. Fiscal policy—United States. 2. Financial crises—United
States—History—21st century. 3. United States—Economic
conditions—2009– 4. Global Financial Crisis, 2008–2009.
I. Title.
HJ275.W235 2009
330.973—dc22 2009037968
www.atrandom.com
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