Debt or alive? Deficit hawks hope debate finally turns to borrowing

As Barack Obama and Mitt Romney gather Wednesday at the University of Denver for the first presidential debate, organizers of a new national campaign are making a push in Colorado to address an issue they say can't be ignored any longer ? the national debt.

At $16 trillion, the nation's debt is on a path to exceed 100 percent of the U.S. economy in the next decade and 200 percent by 2040, says the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a national effort with bipartisan support that hopes policymakers will finally summon the courage to deal with the country's out-of-whack finances.

The campaign was founded by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a Republican, and Erskine Bowles, a Democrat and a former Clinton administration official, and

is partners with the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Budget. The two were co-chairmen of Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which produced a set of recommendations that were never sent to Congress because of division on the commission.

But now, the pair's Fix the Debt campaign has been trying to drum up support for the effort at the state level, hoping respected names locally can light a fire under congressional delegations and provide them with moral support.

"I personally believe that this debt is nation-threatening," says former Gov. Dick Lamm, a Democrat who's backing the campaign in Colorado. "The only way I can see to do this (solve the problem) is to try to get the political establishment some backbone and courage."

He's joined by former state Sen. Norma Anderson, a Republican.

"I'm concerned not for myself ? I'll be dead before it affects me ? but for my children and grandchildren," Anderson said.

Her message to politicians: "You need to do something about it, and we will help you."

Organizers hope to get even more of Colorado's noted statesmen involved in the effort.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and an organizer of Fix the Debt, said she has gone to dinner parties for years where people's eyes glazed over as soon as she told them her work involved the federal debt. But that's changing, she said.

"People are coming to us and asking, 'How can we help?' " MacGuineas said. "It used to be that people who called me were people who'd seen me on C-Span.

"It feels like this is one of those moments in our country's history where you're going to do the right thing or you're not."

Fix the Debt says unchecked debt will slow the nation's economic growth, limiting the budget flexibility of future generations to respond to crises ranging from natural disasters to security threats.

Lamm says a question he would like to ask the presidential candidates is: "Be honest with the American public: Is there any way out of this without pain?"

There are multiple reasons for the country's staggering debt, including the fact that it has fought two wars for a decade, cut taxes at the same time and then entered the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression ? and then spent more trying to save the economy through government bailouts and stimulus packages.

Romney has criticized Obama for not cutting the deficit in half, as the president said he would do in early 2009.

Obama's plan would allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for households making more than $250,000 a year and would impose other tax increases on wealthier Americans to the tune of about $1.5 trillion. The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation says Obama's plan is out of step "with any commonly held notion of tax reform," including the Simpson-Bowles recommendations.

The group said the president's plan "fails to spur the economy, ultimately resulting in insufficient tax revenue and perpetual deficits."

But critics say Romney's plan for dealing with spending deficits is bereft of critical details on what programs or "tax loopholes" he would specifically cut. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says Romney's proposal to cap total federal spending at 20 percent of GDP would "necessitate very large cuts in Medicaid, education, health research and other programs."

And an analysis from online publication Business Insider says, "The idea that the Romney plan will ease our debt and deficit problem is laughable. Under almost any realistic scenario, it will make the problem worse."

Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626, thoover@denverpost.com or twitter.com/timhoover

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_21663785/debt-or-alive-deficit-hawks-hope-debate-finally?source=rss

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