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The United States’ debt just went up, a lot. The former US comptroller Dave Walker said real US debt is somewhere near $65 trillion, instead of the oft-cited $18 trillion.

Head of the Government Accountability Office under both presidents Clinton and Bush, Walker said the totality of unfunded financial commitments of the US add up to more than three times the number generally agreed upon.

Speaking to the host of “The Cats Roundtable” on AM-970 in New York, Walker said “If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms.”

The former US comptroller, who is in charge of ensuring federal spending is fiscally responsible, added that “Americans have lost touch with reality when it comes to spending.”

He decried the fact that a ballooning debt prohibits the US from enacting or carrying out important federal initiatives as well as foreign commitments.

“If you don’t keep your economy strong, and that means to be able to generate more jobs and opportunities, you’re not going to be strong internationally with regard to foreign policy, you’re not going to be able to invest what you need to invest in national defense and homeland security, and ultimately you’re not going to be able to provide the kind of social safety net that we need in this country,” he said.

Walker told Russia Today “The US is not trying to hide anything,” stating that in fact the country is relatively transparent about its finances compared to other nations.

But “the problem is that the economists only want to consider current public debt, and they don’t want to end up looking at the huge promises that we’ve made, that we have not set aside adequate resources to meet.” Walker continued “Ultimately, we’re going to have to confront that gap.”

The real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms.

Speaking about the partisan politics that often block the path of real reform Walker was indignant, saying “You can be a Democrat, you can be a Republican, you can be unaffiliated, you can be whatever you want, but your duty of loyalty needs to be to country rather than to party, and we need to solve some of the large, known, and growing problems that we have.”

The latest posturing over government spending came at the end of October, as the US quickly neared the deadline to raise the debt ceiling again. If the federal government hits the self-imposed limit, it can no longer borrow on credit, a situation that would have dire consequences.

Speaking to NPR in October, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew explained the urgency saying “Any time you wait till the last possible minute, you're inviting a risk. And this is not a last minute that we can know with absolute certainty. I worry every time we hit this that some time, there could be an accident, and that would be terrible.”

Finally, the Senate passed a bi-partisan bill that raised the debt ceiling again, for the last time under President Obama, as it is expected to last until 2017. What will happen after that is anybody’s guess.