I.O.U.S.A. (27 page)

EPILOGUE

When you have children, you want to see them grow up and have the best possible chance to succeed in life. You raise them with values and send them off to college. When they leave, it ’ s a painful experience, but you hope they ’ re equipped to make good choices and meet good people.

In this case, we sent our fi lm to the best Ivy League school in the nation. A week before the Vancouver conference, the fi lm was acquired by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Pete Peterson, the founder, is the CEO of the private equity fi rm Blackstone. Last year, when Blackstone offered a piece of itself up to the public, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund bought about 10 percent of the company. Pete ’ s share of the offering was $ 3 billion, $ 1 billion of which he ’ s donated to the Foundation.

Its mission, among other things, is to rein in rampant waste, fraud, and irresponsibility in the federal government.

Further, Pete wooed David Walker away from his post as the comptroller general of the federal government — the nation ’ s top accountant — to help create the foundation. David agreed to take the job and left the GAO on March 11, 2008.

His fi rst act as the CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation was to buy and orchestrate distribution for our fi lm.

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94 The

Mission

Upon announcing his resignation, David Walker explained his reasons for leaving the government during an interview with Federal News Radio. His thoughts follow: Reporter: “ You will remain comptroller general of the United States until mid - March, is that right?

David Walker: Yes, I love my job as the comptroller general and I love the GAO, and by working together with my colleges here we ’ ve made a huge difference in the nine and a half years that I ’ ve been here. At the same point and time I believe that our country is at a critical crossroads. There are practical limits as to what I can do as the comptroller general. I can ’ t advocate specifi c policy solutions. I can ’ t be as aggressively involved in grassroots efforts as I think will be necessary in order to achieve meaningful and lasting change. ”

Reporter: “ Tell us about the Peterson Foundation. ”

David: “ Well, I ’ m going to be creating this foundation from scratch to make a difference for this country. The mission of the foundation is to get the message to millions of Americans and to propose sensible and workable solutions to address these challenges and to build public will to do something about them. I ’ m still going to be involved in the Fiscal Wake - Up Tour. You know, generals don ’ t leave the fi ght, but sometimes they change their position on the battlefi eld. And that ’ s what I ’ m doing . . . .

“ It was a very diffi cult decision for me. It ’ s something that really has just come together in the past month because I ’ m very concerned about the future of our country and I think I ’ m going to be able to make a bigger difference

‘ cause we ’ re going to need some more aggressive and alternative tactics to achieve change in Washington. ‘ Cause Washington is badly broken.

“ This is about the future of our country, our children, and our grandchildren, and ultimately I ’ d like to think that politicians will rise above partisan politics to do what ’ s right for the country. ”

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