February Surprise?

摘要

Some of the same folks who have been issuing dire warnings about the federal budget deficit don't sound equally alarmed that Uncle Sam might lay out a trillion dollars or so to clean up toxic mortgage debt. "In the context of our total fiscal hole, it's not that material," sniffs David M. Walker, who as U.S. Comptroller General launched a quixotic antideficit crusade and now heads the antideficit foundation funded by Blackstone Group billionaire Peter G. Peterson.rnWalker and others hope to use the crisis to focus Washington and the public on the dangers of the government's towering liabilities-$57 trillion, representing a small amount of overt public debt and large amounts of unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security.