WASHINGTON – Tomorrow (11/10) the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) will continue its high-profile, multi-million dollar ad campaign highlighting the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending. The campaign comes amidst reports that the Senate will soon be forced to raise the debt ceiling in the face of unprecedented deficit spending. The current debt is $11.9 trillion, dangerously close to the $12.1 trillion debt ceiling. That is why EPI is stationing 17 destitute Uncle Sams across Chicago on Tuesday to beg for $12 trillion from taxpayers.

The Defeat the Debt campaign includes a national television commercial, which has aired on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC. EPI also launched “stage 2” of the campaign last month by placing its 17 destitute Uncle Sams on the streets of Washington, DC and New York City to beg for $12 trillion from taxpayers. Additionally, EPI’s website DefeatTheDebt.com was developed in order to educate the public about the enormous federal debt.

A full-page ad is running in RedEye tomorrow. The ad features a downtrodden Uncle Sam holding a sign saying, “I Want YOU to Give Me $12 Trillion.” The text of the ad reads:

The United States government owes more debt than any other nation in the world: $11.9 trillion. We spend almost $500 million on interest payments every day. Much of it to foreign banks and governments. The White House predicts that by 2019 we will spend more tax dollars for interest on the debt than for our national defense.

“This campaign is all about getting people to understand the frightening reality of the massive federal debt,” said EPI Executive Director Richard Berman. “People do not realize just how much 12 trillion dollars is, and what it will take for our country to get out from under that level of debt. Americans also aren’t aware of how much money we now owe to foreign governments and just how unsustainable our current level of spending is. We have to do something to defeat the debt now, or we will live to regret it.”

Debt-Riddled Uncle Sam is available for interviews. To schedule an interview or to get a complete list of where all the Uncle Sams will be stationed, call Allyson Funk at 202.463.7650.

New Campaign Asks Metro Riders if They Could Spare $12 Trillion to Defeat the National Debt

Washington – During the month of November, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is continuing its high-profile multi-million dollar “Defeat the Debt” campaign by placing ads throughout the Capitol South Metro Station in Washington, DC. In addition, 50 ads will appear in other metro stations around the region. The ads ask metro riders if they can spare $12 trillion to highlight the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending by the federal government.

This campaign comes amidst reports that the Senate will soon be forced to raise the debt ceiling in the face of unprecedented deficit spending. The current debt is $11.9 trillion, dangerously close to the $12.1 trillion debt ceiling.

The Defeat the Debt campaign includes a national television commercial, which has aired on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC. EPI also launched “stage 2” of the campaign last month by placing 17 destitute Uncle Sams on the streets of Washington and New York City to beg for $12 trillion from taxpayers. The Uncle Sams will appear in Chicago next week. Additionally, EPI’s website DefeatTheDebt.com was developed in order to educate the public about the enormous federal debt.

“This campaign is all about getting people to understand the frightening reality of the massive federal debt,” said EPI Executive Director Richard Berman. “People do not realize just how much 12 trillion dollars is, and what it will take for our country to get out from under that level of debt. Americans also aren’t aware of how much money we now owe to foreign governments and just how unsustainable our current level of spending is. We have to do something to defeat the debt now, or we will live to regret it.”

In 2006 Congress was debating whether to authorize increasing the size of the national debt. A freshman senator addressed his colleagues: “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt is a sign of leadership failure.”

Three years later, a couple of things are different. That senator is now President Barack Obama, and the national debt is nearly 50 percent larger than before. At least one thing hasn’t changed, however – in the coming weeks the Senate is expected to vote on yet another increase in the federal debt ceiling.

[Tampa Tribune]

There’s one issue that still has broad bipartisan support: At some point, Washington will have to rein in its budget deficits – hard – or the national debt will explode.

…

To dramatize the risks, another Washington think tank sent 17 men onto the capital’s streets wearing Uncle Sam suits to beg with handwritten cardboard signs pleading, “I want you to give me $12 trillion.” Federal debts currently stand at $11.9 trillion, a total that includes reserves of Social Security and Medicare trust funds as well as debt owned by the public in the US and abroad.

The Uncle Sams were part of a million-dollar-plus campaign by the Employment Policies Institute to raise awareness of the “frightening reality” of the swelling debt and the need to do something about it, explains Richard Berman, executive director of the EPI. The think tank will start advocating solutions, maybe in January, he adds. “A lot of people have their heads in the sand.”

[Christian Science Monitor]