UPDATED DECEMBER 16
**A video of the program can be viewed here.
UPDATED DECEMBER 16
**A video of the program can be viewed here.
WASHINGTON — Twenty years after the Kerrey-Danforth Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform issued its seven bipartisan findings, the panel’s co-chairs on Dec. 16 will release an update and explain why such broad fiscal reforms should be championed by a new generation of citizens and leaders — including the 2016 presidential candidates.
Former U.S. Senators J. Robert Kerrey and John C. Danforth will release the new report at a 1:30 p.m. program at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington. Kerrey is also a former co-chair of The Concord Coalition, which is co-hosting the program with BPC.
Joining Kerrey and Danforth will be G. William Hoagland, BPC senior vice president; Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s executive director.
The Kerrey-Danforth commission’s prescient 1994 findings became a landmark in the discussion over long-term reform of the federal budget. With an eye on the aging of the U.S. population and rising health care costs, the commission warned that the nation’s fiscal policies were unsustainable — and that the longer reform was delayed, the more difficult it would be.
Unfortunately, the nation’s elected officials in both parties fell short of meeting the challenges that the Kerrey-Danforth commission explained so clearly two decades ago.
While some positive steps have been taken over the years, there is still a structural mismatch between entitlement promises and the revenue to pay for them. And the tax code is still riddled with special-interest provisions that are often little more than costly spending programs in disguise.
The Dec. 16 program and the updated report will explore how these factors have, over the 20 years since the original Kerrey-Danforth report, left the nation in an even more difficult position to meet its fiscal and economic challenges.
Media coverage is welcome. Livestreaming of the event will be available online.
To register for the event click here, email [email protected] or call (703) 894-6222.
WHAT: “Tough Fiscal Choices for the 2016 Presidential Campaign; Kerrey and Danforth Update Findings of Their 1994 Commission”
WHO: Former Senator J. Robert Kerrey
Former Senator John C. Danforth
BPC Senior Vice President G. William Hoagland
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget President Maya MacGuineas
Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby.
WHEN: 1:30 p.m to 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16
WHERE: Bipartisan Policy Center
1225 Eye Street, NW
10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Media Contact: Steve Winn, (703) 254-7828, [email protected]
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The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to fiscal responsibility. Since 1992, Concord has worked to educate the public about the causes and consequences of the federal deficit and debt, and to develop realistic solutions for sustainable budgets. For more fiscal news and analysis, visit concordcoalition.org and follow us on Twitter: @ConcordC
