In the hour David M. Walker spent Tuesday morning discussing the nation’s financial hole, it grew by about $600 million.

And that’s exactly why he visited Temple University’s Fox School of Business as part of the Comeback America Initiative’s nationwide $10 Million-A-Minute Tour to raise awareness about the country’s financial condition — which his organization says deteriorates by $10 million every minute.

“You can be part of the solution,” Walker told the standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people at Alter Hall in an event co-sponsored by the Temple College Democrats and Temple College Republicans. “Your future is at stake. Our country’s future is at stake. We need you there.”

Prior to founding the Comeback America Initiative (CAI), Walker served as the seventh U.S. comptroller general and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office for almost 10 years. He also has more than two decades of industry experience.

Former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell joined Walker in discussing issues related to fiscal responsibility and government transformation, and their wide-ranging question-and-answer session with audience members touched on health care, unemployment, education and other topics. Both urged attendees to pressure elected officials to take action and to increase transparency, specificity and accountability.

“We’ve way overpromised,” Walker said of the government as the U.S. Burden Barometer — which the CAI says accounts for both total liabilities and underfunded promises such as Social Security and Medicare — ticked upward to nearly $70.5 trillion. “We need to be honest with the American people and rationalize those promises.”

Walker kicked off the tour in Manchester, N.H., on Sept. 7, and is planning to visit some 20 cities in at least 16 states before ending Oct. 9 in Washington, D.C.

— Kyra Mazurek