Cutting the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the federal budget should be among the top concerns of the next president, according to a non-partisan group headlined by David Walker, comptroller general of the United States.

The No. 1 issue today is the war in Iraq, but that is a temporary issue, Walker said. ‘Whatever happens with this could make or break the future of this republic,’ he said of the budget.

The non-partisan group of panelists, the Concord Coalition, gave an hour-long presentation titled the ‘Fiscal Wake-up Tour,’ which focused on the implications rising health care costs will have on the American economy and taxes in the next 40 years. The group made its presentation before a filled-to-capacity crowd of 150 — nearly all students — in Maxwell Auditorium Wednesday night. After the presentation they opened to questions from the audience.

‘This is the fiscal equivalent of global warming,’ said Dean Mitch Wallerstein of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, as he equated each member of the coalition to Al Gore.

Members of the coalition urged the student audience to force current politicians to act as ‘generational stewards,’ which they defined as not only improving policies to make life better in the present, but also for future generations.

‘The baby boom generation is failing on its stewardship responsibilities,’ Walker said, pointing to photographs of his young grandchildren. ‘They do not have a voice, I am their voice.’

Isabel V. Sawhill, vice president and director of economic studies at The Brookings Institution, cut directly to the source of the problem as she outlined a list of health reforms.

‘The reason we have political stalemate right now is Republicans are saying ‘We will never raise your taxes’ and Democrats are saying ‘We won’t touch your Social Security or your Medicare,” Sawhill said. She urged the audience to be wary of these candidates.

Matt Bachand, a graduate student in public administration, also addressed the repercussions of a polarized Congress when he asked the forum’s final question — after much of the audience had left — at about 9 p.m.

Bachand asked how much of the problem is due to gerrymandering, the process by which legislators draw voting district lines.

Walker responded that Bachand’s question was a legitimate one — that because of the redistricting process, many of the seats in the House of Representatives are safe seats, meaning the elected Republicans are more conservative, and elected Democrats are more liberal than mainstream voters.

But politics are about compromise, Walker said. He suggested taking a look at the redistricting process and encouraged lawmakers to allow for more competitive races.

In 2001, models showed the federal budget would be sustainable for 40 years, but that is not the case today, Walker said. ‘The status quo is unacceptable and unsustainable.’

He urged the audience to pressure elected officials to act, pointing to the letters ‘We the people…’ written on his necktie, saying the people are responsible.

‘You will pay the price,’ Walker said. ‘You will bear the burden if others fail to act.’

The primary cause of increased health care costs is technological growth and the continued use of technology, said John L. Palmer, dean emeritus of Maxwell. Palmer, a public trustee of Medicare and Social Security, spoke with the coalition, though he is not a member.

‘We will have to make decisions in the future about how we will use the growth of technology,’ he said.

Though for two years revenues were up and the deficit was down, current trends will still cause problems in the future as the baby-boom generation retires and begins collecting on Social Security, said Robert Bixby, executive director of the coalition and former chief staff attorney of Virginia’s Court of Appeals.

His statements set the scene for the arguments that would follow.

‘We’re not looking in the rear-view mirror, we’re looking ahead. You don’t need a crystal ball to see there are severe problems out there,’ Bixby said. ‘All in all, the current budget deficit doesn’t look all that bad, but that’s where it is right now.’

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending made up 40 percent of the budget in 2006, Bixby said. But society is evolving to become older. In the next 25 years, the number of Americans ages 65 and older will increase from 12 percent to 20 percent.

‘Depending on how you want to keep score, the numbers are big and bad, it’s just a matter of how bad,’ Walker said.

In her part of the presentation, Alison Fraser, director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, manipulated a chart showing potential courses of action legislators could take on the federal budget.

The first change was to do nothing, which sent the chart rocketing upward to show the federal budget making up almost 50 percent of the total economy.

‘Unless we have serious debate, conversations and ideas being offered up in Washington,’ Fraser said, ‘this is tacitly the direction we are heading.’

The second option was to let the 2001 tax cuts expire, and the final was to cut the National Endowment for the Arts, NASA, foreign aid, earmarked legislation and defense spending — all suggested fixes — but even with each of those programs cut, the projection showed little change.

The problems caused by current trends will hit the generation of students today at full strength in the prime of its working years, Fraser said.

Questions fielded from the audience suggested a call for action before the 2008 presidential election. Syracuse University was the 21st stop on the tour, which will soon focus itself on states with early primaries and predicted swing states in the upcoming election.

But the panel argued it is currently laying a foundation for change that will come into play after the 2008 elections.

‘If we just wait and then start, we’ll just be three or four years behind until those building blocks are established,’ Fraser said.

‘We’re not preaching gloom and doom,’ Bixby said, pointing to a drawing of Paul Revere. ‘We are going around the country raising an alarm.’

Published on April 3, 2007 at 12:00 pm