Leadership In Changing And Challenging Times

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the CII Annual Conference audience in Grapevine, Texas on July 20, 2005. The United States currently faces three deficits with significant economic and other implications for our future. These are our federal budget deficit, our balance of payments deficit, and our savings deficit. A vast majority of our current federal budget deficit has nothing to do with the global war against terrorism and incremental homeland security costs. More important than any current and short-term deficits, we face large and growing structural deficits in the future due primarily to known demographic trends, rising health care costs and relatively low federal revenues as a percentage of the economy. Our second deficit is our nation's balance-of-payments deficit, of which our record trade deficit is a sub-set. The third is our overall savings deficit. The United States has the lowest savings rate of any major industrialized country which means, among others things, that we have to increasingly rely on foreign players to finance our budget deficits and excess domestic consumption. These three deficits represent a much greater long-term threat to the United States than any country or terrorist group. They also present enormous leadership challenges. Failure to act decisively and in a timely manner to address this "triple threat" may represent the greatest risk to our collective future with significant domestic and international implications. As at the founding of our nation, we need more leaders today who have the vision to see the way forward, the courage to challenge the status quo, and the willingness to take on the many vested interests necessary in order to help create a more positive future for our country and all Americans. We need more leaders in government, the private sector and the not-for profit sector who will rise to the challenge in order to help ensure that our best days are ahead of us rather than behind us. Today I would like to focus my remarks on the federal government's current leadership needs. Importantly, these needs are not partisan in nature, they are not confined to one branch of government, and they involve elected, appointed and career positions, including military and civilian personnel.