is David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, who is trying to alert the general public to the US Government’s perilous fiscal condition. Check out this excerpt from Comptroller General Walker’s December 24 letter to the Washington Post:

“The largest employer in the world announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion in fiscal 2006. Its auditor found that its financial statements were unreliable and that its controls were inadequate for the 10th straight year. On top of that, the entity’s total liabilities and unfunded commitments rose to about $50 trillion, up from $20 trillion in just six years.

If this announcement related to a private company, the news would have been on the front page of major newspapers. Unfortunately, such was not the case — even though the entity is the U.S. government.

To put the figures in perspective, $50 trillion is $440,000 per American household and is more than nine times as much as the median household income.”

Of course, if a private company kept it’s books the same way the government does they would be locked up for violating Sarbanes-Oxley.

Thanks to Radley Balko for bringing this to my attention.