Future U.S. economic growth, living standards and even national security will depend upon the American public pushing for fundamental reforms in the federal budget — and on elected leaders following through.
“So far we have all been faltering,” says Chase Hagaman, New England regional director for The Concord Coalition, in a guest column this week in The Telegraph (N.H.).
Future U.S. economic growth, living standards and even national security will depend upon the American public pushing for fundamental reforms in the federal budget — and on elected leaders following through.
“So far we have all been faltering,” says Chase Hagaman, New England regional director for The Concord Coalition, in a guest column this week in The Telegraph (N.H.).
He recalls how his grandfather planned for the future, investing “time, resources and passion into laying a solid foundation on which the next generations of his family could build even better lives.”
Hagaman says that sort of focus on the future “is what the country now needs — particularly in Washington — as we face a rising national debt, an inefficient tax system and warnings that critical programs like Social Security and Medicare are on unsustainable paths.”
Bipartisan groups have suggested a variety of possible solutions.
“Each of these plans took a balanced approach, with a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases,” Hagaman writes. “Each called for the burden of fiscal reforms to be widely shared. And they each sought generational fairness, protecting younger Americans and future generations from being saddled with excessive government debt.”
Action on comprehensive reform, however, has been lacking. Hagman’s view: “We can do better.”
