WASHINGTON, December 14, 2012—Strengthening of America—Our Children’s Future
WASHINGTON, December 14, 2012—Strengthening of America—Our Children’s Future, a bipartisan initiative cochaired by former senators Sam Nunn, Pete Domenici, Evan Bayh, and the late Warren Rudman to raise public consciousness of the country’s growing debt, has released a new report: “Achieving a Sustainable Fiscal Path: A Bipartisan Effort to Address the Nation’s Rising Debt.”
This report is based on a series of public forums held last September and October featuring former secretaries of the treasury Robert Rubin, James A. Baker III, and Lawrence H. Summers; former secretary of defense Robert Gates; former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen; former secretary of health and human services Donna Shalala; and former Senate majority leader and CSIS trustee William Frist, among others.
The report outlines five broad principles that emerged from the forums:
1) The U.S. debt is a ticking time bomb for our economy.
2) The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.
3) We cannot have economic growth without fiscal stability or fiscal stability without growth.
4) We cannot put our debt on a sustainable path without reductions in the projected cost of entitlement programs, cuts in discretionary spending, and higher revenues.
5) Solving this problem is achievable if our national leaders are willing to compromise.
The report features excerpts from the forums and outlines the steps that need to be taken for there to be a serious shift in the way America deals with its debt. For more information on the Strengthening of America initiative, please visit cs.is/StrengtheningAmerica.
The effort is a joint project of the Concord Coalition, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the American Business Conference, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Strengthening of America—Our Children’s Future, is working closely and coordinating with the Campaign to Fix the Debt, the Comeback America Initiative, and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s ongoing efforts to call attention to the fiscal challenges threatening America’s future.
The Steering Committee for Strengthening of America currently includes the following former members of Congress: Howard Baker (R-TN), Bob Bennett (R-UT), David Boren (D-OK), Bill Brock (R-TN), Richard Bryan (D-NV), Mike Castle (R-DE), Jack Danforth (R-MO), Tom Davis (R-VA), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Mickey Edwards (R-OK), Daniel Evans (R-WA), Victor Fazio (D-CA), Bill Frenzel (R-MN), Dan Glickman (D-KS), Slade Gorton (R-WA), Bob Graham (D-FL), William Gray (D-PA), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Jane Harman (D-CA), J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA), James Jones (D-OK), Nancy Kassebaum (R-KS), David McCurdy (D-OK), Jim Nussle (R-IA), Tim Penny (D-MN), Chuck Robb (D-VA), Tim Roemer (D-IN), Alan Simpson (R-WY), Charlie Stenholm (D-TX), John Tanner (D-TN), Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), Tom Tauke (R-IA), John Vincent “Vin” Weber (R-MN), and Tim Wirth (D-CO).
