America At A Crossroads

This speech was given by the Comptroller General before the Independent Sector's CEO Summit in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 23, 2006. America faces a range of current and emerging challenges, many of which know no geopolitical borders or sectoral boundaries. I'm sure that many of these issues will be familiar to you and to your organizations. Let me start with possibly the most sweeping agent of change, and that's demographics. Our fiscal challenge overarches every major public policy spending and tax issue. In my view, America now faces not one but four interrelated deficits. These deficits have serious implications for our role in the world, our future standard of living, and even our long-term national security. To meet the changes and challenges that are coming, government transformation is essential. The challenges I've been discussing aren't partisan issues, and the solutions won't be either. More than ever, our government needs a strategic plan to help guide its efforts not just over the coming years but over the coming decades. Such a strategic plan needs to have meaningful goals and metrics that both members of Congress and the public can readily understand. Our government can't go it alone. Public officials have to show a greater willingness to partner for progress not just with their colleagues across government but also with their counterparts in the private, academic, and independent sectors, both domestically and internationally. What role can the independent sector play? Fortunately, we have a long and proud history in this country of private citizens who have committed themselves to the greater good by endowing universities, underwriting medical research, establishing museums and cultural institutions, and creating and funding foundations. Today, nonprofits have an opportunity to contribute to the "greater good" in several ways: By conducting or funding research, educating the public, promoting constructive engagement, performing certain functions in cooperation with government, and other activities.