Voinovich joins others for Press Conference to urge restoration of fiscal discipline
This in via e-mail from the Peterson Foundation, since it includes Senator Voinovich, I’m sharing it in full:
Sens. Conrad, Voinovich, Reps. Cooper, Wolf, and Former U.S. Comptroller General and Peter G. Peterson Foundation CEO David Walker Hold Press Conference Urging Obama Administration and Congress To Take Action To Restore Fiscal Discipline
Peterson Foundation Announces $1 Million-Plus Advertising Campaign on Fiscal Challenges Facing America
WASHINGTON, DC (February 5, 2009) – Former U.S. Comptroller General and Peter G. Peterson Foundation President and CEO David M. Walker today joined Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Reps. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) at a press conference urging the Obama Administration and Congress to address the nation’s growing fiscal challenges. Walker and the Members of Congress discussed policy ideas to address America’s structural deficit and escalating debt levels, including establishing a bipartisan, action-oriented commission or task force. Walker also announced the Foundation’s plans for its first major advertising campaign – a $1 million-plus DC-focused media buy aimed at raising awareness of America’s deteriorating financial condition.
“The time has come for members of both parties to come together and create a framework for restoring fiscal discipline,” said Walker. “The federal government is in a $56 trillion financial hole, which amounts to $483,000 per U.S. household.”
The attending Members of Congress spoke on the need to address fiscal discipline.
· “While the immediate focus of Congress’s efforts is on jump-starting the economy and putting people back to work, we must be ready to pivot to address the tremendous long-term fiscal imbalance confronting our nation,” Sen. Conrad said. “The bottom line is that no matter how successful we are in pulling out of the current economic downturn, our long-term economic security will remain in jeopardy until we address this problem.”
· “We can no longer ignore the fiscal challenges that face the nation,” Sen. Voinovich said. “Peter Orszag has given me assurances that entitlement and tax reform will be on President Obama’s agenda and that the administration will hold a fiscal summit at the end of the month. I am calling on President Obama to live up to these promises and work with me and my colleagues to take the bold action and support a bipartisan commission.”
· “The current economic crisis means we can no longer afford to ignore our long-term fiscal problems; we have to start dealing with them right away,” Rep. Cooper said. “President Obama has signaled that he is ready to work with members of both parties to reform health care, entitlement spending and the tax code. Let’s seize this moment and start making some hard but necessary choices. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us.”
· “Leaving our children and grandchildren buried under a mountain of debt is an economic, moral, and generational issue,” Rep. Wolf said. “It is essential that Democrats and Republicans come together to solve this looming crisis. It will take pressure from outside groups like the Peterson Foundation to move Congress to act.”
The Peterson Foundation’s first advertisement, which appeared in Roll Call and The Washington Post, can be seen online at http://www.pgpf.org/resources/Peterson_IcebergAd.pdf.
“With this new public education campaign, the Peterson Foundation is saying loud and clear that we can no longer ignore the large and growing structural fiscal challenges that threaten our country’s and our families’ future,” said Walker. “While turning the economy around needs to be the top priority right now, we also need to take steps to put an extraordinary process in place to put our nation’s finances in order.”
Since its launch in July 2008, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation has invested nearly $11 million in grants to raise awareness of, and seek solutions to the fiscal challenges posed by the rising costs of health care and retirement and a near-zero household savings rate. The Foundation also distributes the critically acclaimed feature documentary “I.O.U.S.A.”, which tells the story of the rapidly growing national debt and its consequences for the U.S. economy.
About the Peter G. Peterson Foundation:
Founded by the former senior chairman of The Blackstone Group with a commitment of $1 billion, the Foundation is dedicated to increasing public awareness of the nature and urgency of key economic challenges threatening America’s future and to accelerating action on them. To address these challenges successfully, we work to bring Americans together to find sensible, long-term solutions that transcend age, party lines and ideological divides in order to achieve real results. For more information, see www.PGPF.org.
It’s amazing how the “fiscal conservatives” only come out of the woodwork when social programs are being discussed.
Nary a peep out of them when Wall Street was being given $700,000,000,000+.
Now, suddenly, they need a “media blitz”.
Go figure.
February 6th, 2009 at 6:36 amMy favorite question from the intertubes:
“If you have so many good economic ideas, how come you never passed any of them along to the last President?”
February 6th, 2009 at 7:28 amLooks like Voinovich is going to vote no. Lets hope so. Or at least I hope so.
February 6th, 2009 at 4:19 pmCRAIG…YOU HIT THE NAIL RIGHT ON THE HEAD…REPUBLICANS AND NEO-CON ARE JOINED AT THE HIP TO THE CROOKS OF WALL STREET. SCREW MAIN STREET AND MIDDLE AMERICA….AS MARCY TOLD ME AT A CHRISTMAS PARTY THIS PAST DECEMBER, IT WAS NOT A BAILOUT OF WALL ST BUT A SELL OUT…NOW YOU SEE WHY I HATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SO MUCH AND NEO-CONS..BUT THEY LOVE THIS MEANINGLESS STUPID WAR AND 12 BILLION DOLLARS A MONTH TO KEEP IT GOING
February 6th, 2009 at 11:59 pmThis was a pleasant surprise. I was sure Voino would wheel & deal on this.
February 7th, 2009 at 7:27 amBy the way, Michael. You might want to revise your statements above. Last I checked, it was a Democrat House and Senate – with Barack Obama’s blessing – that approved $700 billion for Wall Street last September. As for the war, your Democrats could end it tomorrow if they wanted to…
February 7th, 2009 at 7:29 amMichael Friedman is right on target. I am so sick and tired of all of the pompous GOP Senators talking about how terrible it is to spend tax dollars in the USA to improve infrastructure for US citizens, while we spend BILLIONS in IRAQ. Where were they when G W Bush led us into a needless war? Silent and standing on the sidelines to support their President. All we are seeing is partisan politics from the party that brought us another economic depression.
February 7th, 2009 at 8:57 amTrue, plenty of pompous GOP senators. But on the issue, your Democrats can stop the billions in spending in Iraq if they want to, right? They own it now. What if they don’t? Will it still be Bush’s fault? And was it not a Democrat Congress that authorized the Wall Street bailout?
And I seem to recall that Democrats controlled the Senate when it voted 77-23 to authorize the Iraq war…
February 7th, 2009 at 9:36 amI can’t stand seeing the same tired old white men, who haven’t spent even one day out of the last 20 or so actually WORKING, debating the economic stimulus package. How can they know what is good for the country’s working people when they haven’t worked an honest day in the last 20 years? I think they all ought to resign, as they have abdicated their responsibilities to govern by going along with the failed policies of the Iraq war and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Where are all the jobs that the Bush tax cuts were supposed to create? Or the Taft tax cuts for that matter? To paraphrase Cuba Gooding’s character in “Jerry Maguire”, “Show me the jobs!”
Oh I know, we were attacked on 9/11 and our economy is still in a tailspin from that. 9/11 changed everything, Blah, blah, and blah! Get over 9/11 already!
February 7th, 2009 at 10:30 amMark wrote:
I am outraged by your blatant use of racism and race bating. I dream that one day people will be judged on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pmjeff, i too was relived to see the no vote. maybe he can get to snowe or collins. specter is a lost cause.
February 7th, 2009 at 2:36 pmBen, I don’t think Collins is going to change positions, not after reading this.
I’m not totally against the stimulus package, but personally I would have liked to have seen more immediate help and delayed some of the larger long term projects to be fought over later.
Since we have a variety of different ideologies on this thread, I’d be interested in opinions on the idea of eliminating social security taxes for a six month or a year for both employees and employers as a way to increase both personal income and business income.
February 7th, 2009 at 2:57 pm“Since we have a variety of different ideologies on this thread, I’d be interested in opinions on the idea of eliminating social security taxes for a six month or a year for both employees and employers as a way to increase both personal income and business income.”
An excellent idea, in my view. An immediate tax cut/pay raise for every wage earner in the United States. You want to stimulate demand in a hurry? You’d be hard-pressed to find a more efficient, effective way. And if we’re going to spend billions we don’t have, shouldn’t we err on the pro-growth side of letting people keep more of their current money rather than the statist side of taking more of their future money?
LR – Run for Congress. I’ll be your first contributor.
February 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pmThanks Jeff, I can’t take credit for the idea, it’s actually one of the ideas promoted by James K. Galbraith and I thought it had not only merit but was interested in what the rest of you thought about it.
February 7th, 2009 at 3:23 pmCraig hit the nail on the head. Interesting indeed is Senator Voinovich’s stance considering he voted for two rounds of the Bush tax cuts, which lead us to the current deficit.
February 7th, 2009 at 11:33 pmTax cuts don’t cause deficits, too much spending does.
2001-2008, federal spending increased by 57 percent. Four years that followed the 2003 tax cuts, federal revenue rose by $785 billion. Of course, we had deficits following September 11 (unavoidable), but then we went on a spending spree. Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, Bush tax cuts all yielded higher federal revenues. Look it up.
And aside from the facts – from a philosophical perspective, believing that tax cuts cause deficits requires belief that the money you earn is not yours, it is Washington’s. Flip it around, if you’re in debt, is it because of taxes, or because you have spent too much?
February 8th, 2009 at 8:07 amTax cuts without a plan for cutting spending are irresponsible at best and they increase deficits. Reagan was forced to RAISE taxes after his cuts caused the deficit to balloon. Obviously the Republicans didn’t have any plans to cut spending. And combined with the tax cuts that Voinovich voted for, you had the lowest revenues as a pct of the GDP since 1959 (see link above)–and this was after the 2003 cuts. There was a slight rebound, but overall the results were anemic.
This is the problem with the current group of Republicans. They continually run on the platform of cutting taxes. Yet they have NO plans to cut spending. The only way they can balance the budget is to cut things like Medicare payments, SS benefits, education spending, etc (or raise taxes). Do you ever think they’ll run on THAT platform? Of course not, because Americans don’t want those type of cuts. So either the Repubs are cowards, or their just dishonest.
So it is hypocritical for Voinovich to discuss fiscal responsibility when he is partially to blame for the current deficit–by not combining tax cuts with spending cuts
February 8th, 2009 at 12:52 pmLisa,
If they are going to be spending all this money, I too would like to see much more of it help people now. Not in 2011.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:17 pm