The Concord Coalition, which has long viewed public engagement as essential to U.S. fiscal reform, is partnering with the Campaign to Fix the Debt to present a series of public forums around the country in the coming weeks.
This joint project will focus its efforts on ten programs in six states: Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida and Tennessee. These events, open to the public, will take a variety of forms.
The Concord Coalition, which has long viewed public engagement as essential to U.S. fiscal reform, is partnering with the Campaign to Fix the Debt to present a series of public forums around the country in the coming weeks.
This joint project will focus its efforts on ten programs in six states: Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida and Tennessee. These events, open to the public, will take a variety of forms.
We at Concord are delighted to be involved in a project that we believe can help lay the groundwork for comprehensive fiscal reform in the near future. The Campaign to Fix the Debt, which was launched last year, has been working with business leaders, political figures and hundreds of thousands of citizens from across the ideological spectrum who want to see elected officials step up to solve the nation’s fiscal challenges. The impact is being felt in Washington already.
The speakers at the upcoming events will include both national and regional experts on the rapid growth of the federal debt and related issues, including the need for fundamental reforms of the tax system and entitlement programs. There will also be an emphasis on the need to curb future increases in health care costs. Some of the speakers hold either state or national positions with the Fix the Debt campaign.
The events in the coming weeks will help the American public to better understand many of the possible solutions that have been suggested by bipartisan commissions and others – and some of the trade-offs that should be carefully considered. In addition, speakers at the programs will explain the importance of putting the federal budget on a sustainable track sooner rather than later.
The first forum will begin at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Ezell Center, Lipscomb University — Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership, in Nashville. It will feature former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, CapWealth Advisors CEO Tim Pagliara, and Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director. The moderator will be Turney Stevens, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Business.
Another program is set to begin at 11 a.m. Feb. 11 at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Speakers there will include David Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell; Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau; State Sen. Lou D’Allesandro of Manchester, and Concord’s Bixby.
And on Feb. 19, we have two Fix the Debt events scheduled in Iowa: a 7 a.m. program at the Conservative Breakfast Club and a noon forum at the Greater Des Moines Partnership business luncheon. Speaking at both will be Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; David Oman, former chief of staff to two Iowa governors, and Sara Imhof, Concord’s Midwest regional director.
More information on these and other upcoming programs will be available soon at concordcoalition.org and fixthedebt.org.
We hope Fix the Debt and Concord members will join us for these informative, solution-oriented programs on some of the most critical decisions now facing Americans and their elected officials.
