david walker was the comptroller from 1998 to 2008 and headed up the government accountability office he explains why hitting the debt ceiling would be a great disruption to the u.s. economy and let's nod to those who say the government spends irresponsibly or spends too much money and ways to deal with that and people talk about balanced budget amends and ways to do it and this is not the most efficient way to deal with government spending. >> it absolutely is not, we are the only nation that has a debt ceiling limit based upon a dollar amount. we need to do something to be able to control spending and be able to get our finances in order but really what we need is a credit card limit and we should set a limit as to how much debt as a percentage of the economy because that is what matters we should be able to take on and take steps to try to be able to constraint spending and grow the economy and move to a more efficient tax system in order to help us from ever getting to the limit. >> all of what you say speaks to something we have heard referred to as a grand bargain, a real sit do

general david walker says we are a lot more money in the holder.he problem is only getting worse. 74 trillion. that is a mouthful. >> it sure is. the fact is that we have huge unfunded pension and retiree health obligations for medicare and social security and the real number was $70 trillion. and guess what, they haven't done any of this. maybe that would give the country a more grassroots level to understand the urgency. >> i think so for two reasons. it shows that the problem is growing faster and secondly for positive reason, that if we do get a grand fiscal bargain that involves a number of changes that are phased in over time, the debt will come down the dollar, but this could come down tens of trillions of dollars because the power of compound. it gives them a sense of urgency and credit to the extent that we can make some progress even if it stays in overtime. >> understanding the environment in washington right now and the players right now, what would we see being put forward over the next few months. >> i think people are disgusted with

. >> let me bring in david walker head of the government accountability office and ceo of comeback americaw bad would be the? what would it mean, going over the debt? >> only god knows and god's not telling us. i will tell you this, it's way too much finger pointing and way too much hyping. article 4 of the 14th amendment of the constitution makes it clear that bondholders of u.s. debt are guaranteed. they're going to get paid. the question is who is not going to get paid on time and what kinds of penalties and interest will we have to pay because of the prompt payment act. i think the senate is going to reach a deal but is it going to be acceptable to the house. >> there are a number of how republicans who are running on defunding or delaying obama care and that's not going to happen. >> i think it was down right stupid for the conservatives in the house to be able to make obama care part of the cr. that was downright stupid. it's going to be a peripheral part of whatever is done. we have to focus on the spending. we have to invest more in critic critical infrastructure and cut back on pr

so is david walker, former comptroller general for the united states or put more simply he was the nation'ser president clinton and supported mitt romney in the last election. welcome, david. >> good to be with you, carol. >> so you kept the books for the government? >> no, no, i didn't keep the books for the government. i was not responsible for this accounting because it's atrocious, i can tell you. >> i totally get while you're explaining more carefully. so it astounds me the number of people who don't believe anything will happen if the debt limit isn't raised. >> well, something will happen, but we have more than enough revenue to service our debt, only about 10% of our revenue is necessary to service our debt, there's one thing guaranteed in the constitution of the united states, that's bondholders and u.s. debt. now the treasury is admitting they have well maybe it's not october 17, maybe a few days past october 17th. look we shouldn't be in a position to decide what bills we're going to pay and not. >> this is a bad thing. >> it's a bad thing. they should not keep on moving the ball

comptroller david walker, he's what you call a deficit hawk. he's ceo of the come back initiative. developments on a potential deal tonight. what do you make of this? do you see the house republicans going along with the idea of separating or working on both the debt ceiling as well as the shutdown? >> a great majority and ed essentially the leadership, anderson, are saying we'll reopen the government and we'll drop defunding obama care and we'll get something of the debt ceiling, get negotiations on tax reform, we'll get negotiations on entitlement and hopes the senate will make changes to obama care. remember, a lot of conservative democrats up for election next year and maybe they will take away the tax on medical devices but they won't repeal or defund it. they realize they are paying a political price. >> gloria, you say they are giving in but trying to find a fig leaf. what do you mean? >> yeah, i think from the positive talk from the congresswoman before, how it was a great meeting with the president and we'll negotiate. they are looking at the polls and saying this has been

david walker says this is why we'll never get spending under control. we heard the proof here. the majority leader of the united states senate is saying, we don't have a spending problem. we have a revenue problem. not enough taxes coming in. >> we have three kinds of spending problems. we have a discretionary spending problem, although the way to happen is notice across the board cuts. you have to separate the wheat from the chafe. we need more investment spends and less consumption. we heard a mandatory spending problem, social insurance programs, health care, and thirdly, we have a tax expend it tour -- expend it tours. they're not in the budget in the financial statements, not periodically reviewed, and quite frankly, a lot of them don't work. i know a lot of democrats that would not vote for a tax increase unless it was coupled with significant spending reductions, and that is where the american people are, and we need to start focusing on mandatory spending, more intelligent discretionary spending cuts, and taxes -- >> dave, we're not doing that. what scares me lately dis

. >> david walker, always good to have you on. we're back with two of our political commentators, democratic political strategist and republican -- >> i'm a professional word smith. i come up with euphemisms like this for politicians all the time. talk about rationalizing and reforming. here's what he's proposing. raising taxes and cutting spending mostly on things like social security and medicare. a lot of experts say he's right and he is an expert. but at some point we have to strip away the euphemisms and tell the american people okay what we are talking about here is raising taxes and cutting social security and medicare. try selling that in this building with the white dome behind us. there's a lot of other people who think the best way to bring all this down is to put americans back to work and that's when the deficit will come down better than just cutting social security. >> there was a new idea there, something different than what washington's doing now. families, businesses. how do they make decisions and stay within a

. >> well, in the interview, walker thought he was speaking to david koch and revealed his true feelings a dangerous situation for protestsers. scott walker isn't surprising anyone with the cover-ups in his book. the wisconsin governor is just starting his campaign of denial a little bit early. joining me on our "rapid response" panel, ruth coniff, political editor of the "progressive" magazine and john ni kprr nichols of the "nation" magazine. ruth, johnson just got elected. he's at 28%. what's going on here? >> well, johnson was elected in that landslide year. you know, 2010, and it was a backlash against obama. and he defeated russ feingold, our senator from wisconsin who, you know, may not be done being senator from wisconsin. we'll see what happens. but ron johnson has been virtually invisible since he got to washington, d.c. he's done basically nothing. he's an ayn rand fan. he ran on a pro-business flat form. he stirred up the tea party base. i don't think many people are expecting him to be a leader in wisconsin politics for very long. >> john nichols, how does johnson recover? h

david schuster, thanks for watching. >>> hello, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford in new york. the search is over for two florida fugitives. charles walker and joseph jenkins will wake up behind bars. they were found in a panama hotel after they escaped separately from the franklin correctional institution using forged document. >> jpmorgan chase could pay a record $13 billion fine for its mortgage practices leading up to the 2005 crisis. a tentative agreement has

walker. overnight leader brooks kirker had a poor day four shots clear, but bogeyed four of the last 10 holes. he ended in a four-way-third. davidnn ended and nine-year title drought on the european tour with a victory at the portugal masters sunday. the englishman started the final round six shots behind overnight leader paul waring, but he rolled up five birdies on the front nine to put himself in contention. this before carting a further four on the back nine against one bogey, winning his best round of the day in eight under 63, setting a clubhouse target of 80 overall. justin sank four straight birdies on the back nine to draw within a stroke at 17 under, but would get no closer as lynn held on for the title. >> today on the net, the former president of peru tweeting from prison. several u.s. states cracking down on revenge and the latest public mobile art installation hits new york city. strikes, roadblocks, protests against absurd measures. is he incapable of governing? his post to twitter was posted by his predecessor. he is serving a 25 year prison sentence for corruption against crimes against humanity. he is not able

louis cardinals opening scoring in second david frees is a post season nightmare ai. 2-run homer off garrett cole. starling full extension to matt carpenter, neil walker look at this great start. they cut bj daniels to sign john excelton and signed mccloud bethel thompson. i don't know. that will be put to the test by an arizona rush defense. >> they've added a mix of good players and it's a new team in that regard this, is a very good football team. well coached team. >> cardinals had good defense, think they're under rated last year as a defense. and this year, they play hard, play fast. >> do not forget. we have another edition of vernon's view following arizona contest only on abc 7 i'll be there, too. >> the chiefs are five and 0 led by alex smith. raiders want to run the football g news is that darren mcfadden back at practice, both had been injured. >> we understand it's a challenge we have to face against kansas city. a lot of good football players and if will be a tough environment to play in. i understand they're trying to set a world record so we'll have to be prepared for that environment. >> it's going to be fun. >> get ready to hear the

louis cardinals opening scoring in second david frees is a post season nightmare ai. 2-run homer off garrett cole. starling full extension to matt carpenter, neil walkerey cut bj daniels to sign john excelton and signed mccloud bethel thompson. i don't know. that will be put to the test by an arizona rush defense. >> they've added a mix of good players and it's a new team in that regard this, is a very good football team. well coached team. >> cardinals had good defense, think they're under rated last year as a defense. and this year, they play hard, play fast. >> do not forget. we have another edition of vernon's view following arizona contest only on abc 7 i'll be there, too. >> the chiefs are five and 0 led by alex smith. raiders want to run the football g news is that darren mcfadden back at practice, both had been injured. >> we understand it's a challenge we have to face against kansas city. a lot of good football players and if will be a tough environment to play in. i understand they're trying to set a world record so we'll have to be prepared for that environment. >> it's going to be fun. >> get ready to hear the name thomas hurdle. the fourt

david freeze, is this a clutch or what. 2-0 cardinals. couple of defensive gems here. starling marte, in the fourth neil walkerg to their lead in the eighth. here it comes. there goes big burly matt adams. that is crushed. st. louis up, 5-1, and adam wainwright, money with the distance, striking out pedro alvarez to win the series, cardinals take the series, 3-2, 6-1, the final. hard to figure out what the a's are doing, they cut daniels, picking up skelton. okay, today they cut skelton and signed mccloud bethel thompson, i don't know. hosting fell 2 and 3 arizona state, niners back to the more traditional approach. their rush defense ranks third in the league. >> we've added a mix of quite a few good players, and it is really a -- new team in that regard. and they're playing very well. this is a very good football team, very well coached football team. >> the cardinals have always had a good defense. i think they were underrated last year as a defense. but this year they're very good. they play hard, they play fast. show a lot of different looks. >> and do not forget, another edition of burton's view coming u

david louie abc7 news >> there is a sad end toie search for aymzvçó peninsulaç morris's wife reported him missing yesterday, when he failed to return from a walk. he was an avid walker burlingame home. police are still investigating but say there are no signs of foul play. >> the search underway for a san jose man who went on a mining expedition in the sierra. the 65-year-old left home on wednesday, supposed to return yesterday. but never showed up teams from six different agencies are searching for him now in nevada county,c on the ground, and by air. >>> tenants of a burned-out apartment building are appealing a permit to rebuild. the units destroyed by fire the tenants accused the owner of disconnecting alarms prior to the blazet/mv they blame on an improperlykxinstalled water heater. city councilÑi will hea the appeal tonight. he spent several years in prison for human trafficking. humans after poisoning in a billing he owned in berkeleynyhñ >> san jose city council could change a firearms ordinance in order to deal with a wild pig problem what. a problem it is, too. this is a look at damage done to the almaden golf ask country club. feral pigs did $10,000 damag

david louie abc7 news >> there is a sad end toie search for aymzvçó peninsulaç morris's wife reported him missing yesterday, when he failed to return from a walk. he was an avid walkerthe burlingame home. police are still investigating but say there are no signs of foul play. >> the search underway for a san jose man who went on a mining expedition in the sierra. the 65-year-old left home on wednesday, supposed to return yesterday. but never showed up teams from six different agencies are searching for him now in nevada county,c on the ground, and by air. >>> tenants of a burned-out apartment building are appealing a permit to rebuild. the units destroyed by fire the tenants accused the owner of disconnecting alarms prior to the blazet/mv they blame on an improperlykxinstalled water heater. city councilÑi will hea the appeal tonight. he spent several years in prison for human trafficking. humans after poisoning in a billing he owned in berkeleynyhñ >> san jose city council could change a firearms ordinance in order to deal with a wild pig problem what. a problem it is, too. this is a look at damage done to the almaden golf ask country club. feral pigs did $10,000 da

david gregory, it's not just me saying this or chris christie saying this or scott walker saying thishem. >> rhinos. >> the most conservative people associated with the republican party, classic conservative, we're all against this. i found out something remarkable this weekend. there are a lot of people in the house that are horrified by this strategy too. it's like they see this coming. they don't want it to happen but they can't help themselves. >> get ready for the debt ceiling. >> they are doing it any way. i don't understand. there's no leadership. there's no leadership there. >> well, and that's what is striking, right? the way out of this is actually pretty simple. and that is that you try to appeal to democrats to say, look, i'll put a clean cr there. i'll need democratic support and away we go. now, the speaker would lose leverage on the debt ceiling fight if he wants to have that fight but i have spoken to tea party republicans, had one on "meet the press" on sunday who said he doesn't want to mess around with the debt ceiling. he wants to have the fight here because he thi