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Letter in the New York Times

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Think The Current Financial Crisis Is Bad?

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.

Americans are seeing the heavy price the country pays when our leaders don’t take steps to fix serious and undeniable problems. We waited for a crisis to hit before anyone moved to act.

As disruptive and damaging as today’s mortgage sub-prime crisis is, we’re looking at a "super sub-prime" crisis which, if left unaddressed, will hurt many more Americans - and hurt much worse.

Our federal government is in a deep financial hole, yet Washington keeps on digging.

WE MUST CONFRONT SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS:

  • Each household's share of the nation's $53 trillion hole is $455,000 – almost 10 times the median household income. This is unfinanceable!
  • Our children and grandchildren will face tax rates that more than double over time without real reforms to the government's existing entitlement programs and current spending and tax policies. This is unthinkable!
  • Critical investments in our future such as research and development, children's programs, and vital infrastructure are already getting squeezed and will get much more so in the coming years. This is unacceptable!

WE MUST DISPEL SOME CONVENIENT MYTHS:

  • We cannot grow our way out of these problems. To do so, our economy would have to grow by double digits in real terms for decades. Even during the relative prosperity of the 1990s, the economy grew at an average rate of 3.2% per year.
  • We cannot solve the problem simply by eliminating earmarks and pork-barrel spending, cancelling the Bush tax cuts, and ending the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Combined, these actions would get us only 15% of the way to solvency.

WITH TWO DEBATES LEFT, OUR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES MUST BE ASKED:

  1. How will you make fiscal responsibility and intergenerational equity a priority?
  2. How will you slow the rate of growth in health care costs that threatens to bankrupt America?
  3. How will you encourage the country to save more and reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign lenders?
  4. Will you put everything on the table – statutory budget controls, entitlement reform, and current tax policies – to encourage bipartisan action?
  5. Will you support the creation of a bipartisan commission to review everything on the table and make recommendations with a guaranteed up-or-down vote by the next Congress?

THE TIME FOR LEADERSHIP IS NOW.

We need a President who will tackle these critical issues, help educate the public, and lead a bipartisan effort to make meaningful reforms a reality. Join 150,000 of your fellow Americans who have expressed their concern at www.pgpf.org. Tough choices and shared sacrifices will be required, but solutions exist and the nation can meet this challenge and prevail. Our children, grandchildren, and future generations deserve no less.

Together, we can bail out America – and the time to start is now.

For our future,

  • The Hon. Peter G. Peterson
    Chairman, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
    Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce

  • The Hon. David M. Walker
    President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation
    Former U.S. Comptroller General



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Signatures

8,014 Americans have added their names to this letter.

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Now, it's your turn!

We need a President who will tackle these critical issues, help educate the public, and lead a bipartisan effort to make meaningful reforms a reality. This is what we're demanding in our latest New York Times ad, and we need your help to make it happen. Sign our petition today and we will forward your responses to the moderators of the upcoming debates on October 7 and 15!

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