Alice Rivlin, a member of two prominent fiscal commissions, called for renewed bipartisan cooperation on comprehensive budget reform in the most recent in a series of forums around the country co-sponsored by The Concord Coalition and the Campaign to Fix the Debt.
“We need to stop the blame game and get on to constructive proposals . . . ,” Rivlin said in Des Moines, where two programs were presented last Tuesday. “We’ve got to get the President and congressional leaders back to the bargaining table — to get a grand bargain or a sort-of-grand bargain, where debt is stabilized.”
Rivlin, a former vice chair of the Federal Reserve, is a member of the National Steering Committee for Fix the Debt. In introducing her at a breakfast program, David Oman, a co-chair of Fix the Debt’s Iowa Steering Committee, also stressed the need for broad fiscal reforms in the near future.
David Vaudt, Iowa state treasurer and another member of the state steering committee, and Sara Imhof, Concord’s Midwest regional director, joined Rivlin in speaking at a Greater Des Moines Partnership Luncheon.
Vaudt called for both smart spending restraints and growing federal revenue. Imhof discussed the two biggest drivers of projected deficits: Health care costs and the aging of the U.S. population.
External links:
Forum Series Presented by Concord Coalition and Fix the Debt
Campaign to Fix the Debt
