Appearing today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, former senators Judd Gregg (R.-N.H.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) outlined the nation’s fiscal challenges and explained how a new initiative called “First Budget” will press the 2016 presidential candidates to address these challenges.
First Budget is a non-partisan initiative of The Concord Coalition and Fix the Debt. Gregg and Bayh are members of Concord’s Board of Directors, and Gregg is also a co-chair of Fix the Debt.
“Our ability to fund education and health care and the other things we care about, our national defense . . . will really be undermined” by rising deficits and debt in the coming years, Bayh said. Paying interest on the debt, he added, will claim more and more government revenue.
“No generation of Americans has passed on this level of debt to future generations, and we shouldn’t be the first,” Bayh said.
Gregg echoed that concern, saying that we are “headed towards a train wreck” that will put the nation at fiscal risk.
“So we would like to hear from the people who are running for president what their budgets are going to be — how they are going to address entitlement spending, which is at the core of this problem, especially Medicare,” he said. “How are they going to address tax reform, which is also at the core of this problem? And put it out there.”
External links:
Former Senators Bayh and Gregg Join Morning Joe to Discuss First Budget (Video)
Voters Need to Tell Candidates That Responsible Budgeting Is a Priority (Roll Call)
First Budget Website
