WASHINGTON – Three Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked the Government Accountability Office to review the cost of financing future government debt and entitlement program obligations.

U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the committee, Nathan Deal, R-Ga., ranking member of the Health Subcommittee, and Greg Walden, R-Ore., ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, are concerned that the structural deficit will become annual operating deficits as the 78 million baby boomers become Social Security, Medicare and, in some cases, Medicaid eligible.

“Because of these escalating expenses and the resulting budget deficits, GAO has written that ‘the federal government faces unsustainable growth in debt,’” the lawmakers wrote. “The new Medicare trustees report highlights the need to focus on this problem. It estimates that Medicare’s dedicated tax revenues will not cover required spending this year, and that Medicare’s trust fund assets will be gone by 2017 – just as millions of baby boomers become eligible for Medicare benefits.”

A copy of the letter can be found here.