U.S. True Debt Pegged At USD65 Trillion, Not USD18.5, Ex-GAO Chief Says

The true debt of the US is apparently bigger than what everyone thinks.

In an radio interview that aired on Sunday, former Government Accountability Office (GAO) head Dave Walker said that the country’s true debt is three times more than what was advertised.

“If you end up adding to that USD18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms,” the former comptroller general said.

Walker’s call for action also echoed Marketwatch’s advice, which said in an article that at the very least, it should avoid defaulting on its payments. The article also recommends that the US government could primarily focus on passing a clean debt-limit increase to enable its government to pay previously approved spending.