When you’re done filing your taxes on April 15, 2008, come join Washington Policy Center for an interactive conference on how to make government work best for taxpayers. Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will deliver the keynote lunch address. Walker has been touring the nation imploring Americans to "wake up" and deal with the growing fiscal cancer facing the nation.

On July 8, 2007, CBS News did a story on Walker's efforts (video here):

David Walker is a prudent man and a highly respected public official. As comptroller general of the United States he runs he Government Accountability Office, the GAO, which audits the government's books and serves as the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. He has more than 3,000 employees, a budget of a half a billion dollars, and a message he considers urgent.

"I'm going to show you some numbers…they’re all big and they’re all bad," he says.

So bad, that Walker has given up on elected officials and taken his message directly to taxpayers and opinion makers, hoping to shape the debate in the next presidential election.

"You know the American people, I tell you, they are absolutely starved for two things: the truth, and leadership," Walker says.

He calls it a fiscal wake up tour, and he is telling civic groups, university forums and newspaper editorial boards that the U.S. has spent, promised, and borrowed itself into such a deep hole it will be unable to climb out if it doesn’t act now. As Walker sees it, the survival of the republic is at stake.

"What’s going on right now is we’re spending more money than we make…we’re charging it to credit card…and expecting our grandchildren to pay for it. And that’s absolutely outrageous," he told the editorial board of the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Along with Walker, national budget and tax experts will also be speaking at the April 15 conference. Click here for additional details.