Voters must push elected officials and political candidates to move forward on fiscal reforms that can protect younger Americans and future generations from the consequences of excessive government debt. Bob Kerrey, co-chairman of The Concord Coalition’s board of directors, hammered away on that theme at a public forum last week at the University of New Hampshire Law School in Concord.
“The question is: What are our priorities?” said Kerrey, president emeritus of The New School in New York and a former U.S. senator from Nebraska. “Do we really care about our kids and our grandkids, or is it just political mumbo-jumbo?”
He was particularly critical of Congress for failing to move forward on important issues like fixing Social Security, which is on an unsustainable track.
“You know how many people (in Congress) are co-sponsoring something to fix that problem?” Kerrey said. “Zero. That means there’s 535 co-sponsors of the Do Nothing Plan.”
Kerrey was joined in the program by John T. Broderick, dean of the law school and a former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Broderick echoed many of Kerrey’s concerns about the country’s fiscal challenges and the shortcomings of elected officials.
“The American people are smarter than the people who are currently serving them,” Broderick said. Both he and Kerrey encouraged young people to become more involved in the political process, and to encourage others to become involved as well.
External links:
Kerrey, Broderick Talk State of the Nation (With Video)
