Bush's Legacy / The End (of an error) is Near

The Iowa Caucuses have brought us one step closer to ending the nightmare the Bush Administration has been for many Americans and much of the world.

It's hard to grasp the damage George W. Bush has done.

Legal Schnauzer:

Horton reports on a speech by an obscure public official named David M. Walker, who is the comptroller general of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

What did Mr. Walker have to say? "The federal government's fiscal exposures totaled approximately $53 trillion as of September 30, 2007, up more than $2 trillion from September 30, 2006, and an increase of more than $32 trillion from about $20 trillion as of September 30, 2000. This translates into a current burden of about $175,000 per American or approximately $455,000 per American household."

What does this say about the fiscal management of the George W. Bush administration? Let's allow Horton to put that into perspective: "The cost of this presidency, put in dollars and cents through today, is $32 trillion. That's a 150 percent increase in exposure since the reins of office were handed to George W. Bush."

Then Horton cuts directly to the heart of the matter: "It's as if a team of professional burglars were set loose with the tax code."

What kind of coverage did Walker's speech draw? Almost none. It appears that Horton came across it on a relatively obscure Web site. "Americans don't want to hear it," Horton says. "They'd rather be building up credit-card debt, not investments or savings."

The final word from Horton?

"If there is one single fault of the Bush-Cheney administration that will haunt it beyond all others, then it is this: They recognize no duty to posterity. They consume and squander shamelessly. And they mortgage the nation's future in the process."

The Government Accountability Office.

Perhaps we'd be a little better off if we'd pay a little closer attention to what they have to say in the future.