Former Senator Bob Kerrey and Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby discussed the nation’s difficult fiscal challenges this week in the inaugural broadcast of Concord’s radio program “Facing the Future.”
The program – to be aired on WKXL Concord News Radio (N.H.) and available via podcast – will broadcast weekly, hosted by Chase Hagaman, New England regional director for The Concord Coalition.
Kerrey, who is one of the coalition’s chairmen, emphasized the need for Congress to make difficult choices and practice generational responsibility.
“We are borrowing money for consumption…basically robbing from the future to pay for our past,” he said.
Lawmakers “have a very difficult time genuinely solving problems that won’t occur for 10 or 15 years,” Kerrey said. “The further away a problem is, the easier it is to postpone action on it.”
Bixby discussed Concord’s founding mission of public education: “We like to get the facts out there, and people can make up their own minds on what to do with those facts. Democrats and Republicans are going to disagree, and our feeling is that there needs to be bipartisan cooperation on the solutions.”
Bixby also urged Congress and the public to act soon on the nation’s budget challenges.
“We are no longer dealing with these issues from a demographic position of strength, but a demographic position of weakness,” he said.
Each week “Facing the Future” will include discussion of issues related to national fiscal policy and interviews with budget experts, industry leaders, elected officials and candidates for public office.
