At $18.61 trillion, most people think the size of the U.S. national debt is just 103% of the nation’s GDP.

But according to Dave Walker, the former comptroller general of the U.S. government’s General Accounting Office, the total liabilities of the U.S. federal government add up to $65 trillion, which works out to be about 360% of the nation’s GDP. Bradford Richardson of The Hill reports on the problem:

“If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security, the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than $18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms,” Walker told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970 in an interview airing Sunday.

The former comptroller general, who is in charge of ensuring federal spending is fiscally responsible, said a burgeoning national debt hampers the ability of government to carry out both domestic and foreign policy initiatives.

“If you don’t keep your economy strong, and that means to be able to generate more jobs and opportunities, you’re not going to be strong internationally with regard to foreign policy, you’re not going to be able to invest what you need to invest in national defense and homeland security, and ultimately you’re not going to be able to provide the kind of social safety net that we need in this country,” he said.

He said Americans have “lost touch with reality” when it comes to spending.

Replace the word “Americans” with “politicians and bureacrats” in that last sentence and Walker will have completely defined the problem.