Congress is ignoring looming problems, experts say

Knight Ridder reports:

Over the next week, Congress is likely to trim federal spending and insist with a straight face that it's getting government spending under better control.

It's not.

"The facts are not partisan and they're not ideological," said David Walker, the nation's comptroller general. He should know. He's the nation's chief accountant and signs off on the government's balance sheet. America's fiscal future, he said, "is worse than advertised."

Even though the White House and Congress pledge to trim $39 billion to $50 billion in spending over the next five years, that's chickenfeed. The government spends more than $2.5 trillion every year. Congress' savings would trim less than half of 1 percent of annual spending.

There's no party in Washington for cutting spending.Check out how much education spending has increased since 2001.