Drowning Uncle Sam Illustrates Mounting Danger of U.S. Debt

Washington, D.C. — Today, Defeat the Debt (DTD) launched the second phase of a nationwide advertising campaign to educate the American people about the national debt and the long and short-term personal consequences of the government spending money we don’t have.

The campaign will include new television commercials and full-page advertisements in newspapers across the country. An enhanced website, DefeatTheDebt.com, features a counter showing the national debt rising by the second.

The second phase of this multi-million dollar campaign launches today with a five-billboard mosaic in Times Square.  The ad makes the following points:

• The national debt at the time the billboard was erected — $12,863,049,415,216.38;
• The phrase “America is drowning in debt” is illustrated by an Uncle Sam struggling to stay afloat;
• “$500 million in interest payments every day” drives home the urgency of the problem.

“It’s extremely important that people understand just how dangerous America’s national debt truly is,” said Defeat the Debt’s Executive Director Rick Berman. “In just the last year, the debt has ballooned by an additional $1.6 trillion to more than $12.8 trillion, and the consequences of this ever-expanding burden could be disastrous.”

Berman continued, “Americans fail to realize how much money we owe other nations and just how much it would cost us if our bond rating were downgraded as a result of this unsustainable borrowing. If we don’t take action now, we could end up like Greece, where profligate spending has driven the nation to the brink of bankruptcy and threatens to drag down the entire continent of Europe.”

For more information, go to DefeatTheDebt.com. To schedule an interview with a spokesperson, contact Sarah Longwell at 202.463.7650.

Defeat the Debt is a project of the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy.

The “Defeat the Debt” Campaign’s Statement on Deficits Created By Congress’ Irresponsible Spending

Washington, D.C. — Last night, the US Treasury Department announced that the federal government’s budget deficit for the month of February was the highest ever, at $220.9 billion.

In response, Rick Berman, executive director of the Employment Policies Institute, released the following statement:

It’s ironic that this news was released the same day the Senate ignored its own Pay-As-You-Go rule and approved a ”jobs“ bill that will add $130 billion to our soaring deficit.

But in Washington, where budgets with $1.5 trillion deficits are called ”responsible,“ such inconsistencies are maddeningly commonplace.

With Congress preparing to force through a health care bill that will spend more than $2 trillion over ten years, we shouldn’t be shocked if our deficits reach new highs every month hereafter.

If we continue to recklessly spend more money than we have, we’ll have no one but ourselves to blame when the next fiscal crisis arrives.

For more information, visit DefeatTheDebt.com. To arrange an interview, please call Sarah Longwell at 202.463.7650

DefeatTheDebt.com is a project of the Employment Policies Institute and aims to highlight the threat posed by the unsustainable borrowing and spending of the federal government. To learn more about the debt, visit DefeatTheDebt.com.

Washington, D.C. — DefeatTheDebt.com released the following statement today, quantifying the size of the national debt and comparing it to the 82nd Annual Academy Awards happening this Sunday night:

Thanks to our government’s lack of fiscal responsibility, we have accumulated more than $12 trillion in national debt. We’re currently paying $600 million a day just to cover the interest payments.

To put  that daily interest  in context, consider what this Sunday’s payment  would purchase at the Oscars:

• $600 million would finance  production of all 10 of this year’s Best Picture nominees.
• $600 million would purchase 300,000 Vera Wang evening gowns, at $2,000 a pop. That’s enough to give a dress to each and every Oscar attendee for the next 90 years.
• $600 million would purchase 1.2 million gold Oscar statuettes, enough for the Academy to have awards on hand for every show for the next 24,000 years.
• $600 million would cover all 16,500 square feet of the famed red carpet with a stack of dollar bills 18 inches deep.

“Our government has been living a reckless life of fiscal excess,” said Rick Berman, Executive Director of the Employment Policies Institute.

“If we continue to live beyond our means, the tragic bankruptcy that comes at the end of our own ‘True Hollywood Story’ will be a disaster for us all.”

DefeatTheDebt.com is a project of the Employment Policies Institute, and aims to highlight the threat posed by the unsustainable borrowing and spending of the federal government. To learn more about the debt, visit DefeatTheDebt.com.

Past Commissions’ Difficulties Could Mean Trouble for President Obama’s Debt Commission

Washington, D.C. — The “Defeat the Debt” campaign, a project of the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), today released an analysis of recent presidential commissions. It raises questions about the ability of President Obama’s commission to tackle our $1.4 trillion budget deficit.

“While the goals of this debt commission are laudable, I am skeptical that the administration and Congress will act on their recommendations in a substantial manner,” said Rick Berman, Executive Director of EPI. “This debt commission was created because Congress doesn’t have the political will to confront the entitlement programs driving our national debt.”

The last two presidents have also appointed commissions to address growth in entitlement spending. EPI found that the results were unimpressive:

• 1995: President Clinton’s Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform — a 32-member bipartisan panel tasked with creating a plan to control the growth of programs like Medicare and Social Security — couldn’t reach a consensus solution. The commission didn’t offer official recommendations, simply concluding that “the present trend is not sustainable.”
• 1997: President Clinton’s 13-member commission on Social Security released three separate proposals on reforming the entitlement program. Congress failed to act on any of the proposals.
• 2001: President Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security reached an agreement on broad principles of reform, but failed to reach a consensus on a particular plan. Three alternatives were released, one of which President Bush embraced in 2005. This “privatization” campaign was roundly rejected by Congress and the public.

“Our country can’t afford another powerless commission that takes a long time to produce a widely-ignored report,” said Berman. “If Congress and this administration are serious about cutting the debt, the solution is simple — stop spending money that we don’t have. Now. It’s easy — Just say ‘NO.’”

EPI’s “Defeat the Debt” campaign aims to highlight the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending by the federal government. The campaign includes a national television commercial, which has aired on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, and — most recently — in the Washington, DC area during the Super Bowl. In January, EPI placed two adjoining billboards in New York’s Times Square, featuring a bedraggled Uncle Sam begging for $12 trillion from taxpayers.

For more information or to arrange an interview please call Sarah Longwell at 202-463-7650

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy.

Today, President Obama signed into law a $1.9 trillion increase in the federal debt ceiling. Rick Berman, executive director of the Employment Policies Institute, released the following statement:

The effectiveness of a debt reduction plan can be judged by the outrage it generates. This is because an effective plan would cut the outsized entitlements and pork-barrel projects that are “sacred cows” of powerful interest groups.

Yet there’s been no outrage over Congress’ promises of fiscal responsibility or over the President’s proposed debt commission.

These “toothless” and ineffective measures don’t fool anyone here in Washington, but our elected representatives are cynically hoping they’ll fool the American people.

If the President or Congress wanted to cut spending, they could do so today. Instead, the President recently committed to a “freeze” that eliminates four-tenths of one percent of the spending in the federal budget over three years.

Continuing this charade of fiscal discipline, while authorizing a staggering $1.9 trillion in additional debt, is a weak response to a crisis.

The nation can’t survive another round of broken promises.

This city has no shortage of good solutions to our debt. But there’s an utter lack of serious people willing to act on them.

To arrange an interview please call Sarah Longwell at 202-463-7650

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy.

DefeatTheDebt.com released the following statement today, quantifying the size of the national debt and comparing it to DC’s “snowpocalypse”:

Over the past few weeks, residents of Washington, DC have been inundated with media coverage of the blizzard that President Obama called “the snowpocalypse.” While the snowfall was significant, in that same time only a relative handful of stories have covered a far more frightening story: a $1.9 trillion increase in the national debt ceiling, the largest debt in the history of the world.

The snow is beginning to melt, but the debt keeps piling up — we’re at $12.3 trillion and counting. And while the unexpected blizzards caught city officials with their snowpants down, the impending debt crisis has been apparent for years.

To put the size of the debt in perspective, $12.3 trillion in pennies would cover the entire District of Columbia to a depth of nearly nine feet, triple the depth of the recent snow. If that happened, of course, we might actually see some real attention paid to the problem.

Washington, D.C. — The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released the following statement in response to Thursday’s Senate vote to raise the debt ceiling for the second time in as many months.

From J. Justin Wilson, EPI Senior Research Analyst and Manager of EPI’s Defeat The Debt campaign:

“Washington’s disconnect between rhetoric and reality was on full display today, as the Senate passed the largest-ever increase in federal borrowing only hours after a State of the Union address in which President Obama promised a new focus on fiscal responsibility. The American people know that borrowing another $1.9 trillion is not progress — it’s digging the nation deeper into debt at a time when we can least afford it.

That is why EPI has launched a campaign to put into perspective the frightening reality of the massive federal debt. People do not realize just how much $12.3 trillion is, and what it will take for our country to get out from under that level of debt. For example, using the passage of time as a reference, a million seconds will elapse in 12 days, while a trillion seconds is equivalent to more than 30,000 years.

Last year, the government’s tax revenue was enough to cover Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a few other entitlement programs. Everything else, from the Department of Defense to the National Park Service, went onto the nation’s credit card.

We simply cannot afford to continue down this reckless path. Defeating the debt will take real action, not budgetary gimmicks like the new pay-as-you-go rule that includes $1.6 trillion in exceptions, or a toothless presidential ‘Debt Commission’ without any actual authority over Congress.”

The Defeat the Debt campaign aims to highlight the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending by the federal government. Additionally, EPI has placed two adjoining billboards in New York’s Times Square, featuring a bedraggled Uncle Sam begging for $12 trillion from taxpayers.

The campaign also includes a national television commercial, which has aired on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC. Throughout September and November, EPI also placed 17 homeless Uncle Sams on the streets of Washington, New York City, and Chicago to beg for $12 trillion from taxpayers.

For more information or to arrange an interview please call Sarah Longwell at 202-463-7650.

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy.

Multi-Million Dollar “Defeat the Debt” Ad Campaign Continues with Times Square Billboards

Washington, D.C. — The Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is continuing its high-profile, multi-million dollar “Defeat the Debt” campaign by placing two adjoining billboards in New York City’s Times Square, which will be on display through January. The billboards highlight the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending by the federal government. The three-story billboards depict a bedraggled Uncle Sam asking Times Square visitors if they can spare $12 trillion for the nation’s staggering debt.

The ads come on the heels of Congress raising the federal debt ceiling by $290 billion before the New Year. Reports now indicate that the debt ceiling must be raised again within the next three months in the face of unprecedented deficit spending. The current debt is $12.3 trillion, dangerously close to the $12.4 trillion debt ceiling.

The “Defeat the Debt” campaign includes a national television commercial, which has aired on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC. Throughout September and November, EPI also placed 17 destitute Uncle Sams on the streets of Washington, New York City, and Chicago 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.

Through its ads and website, the “Defeat the Debt” campaign strives to put into perspective the size of a multi-trillion dollar debt. For example, using the passage of time as a reference, a million seconds will elapse in 12 days. A trillion seconds is more than 30,000 years.

“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 what it will take for our country to get out from under a $12 trillion debt when the government is expected to be adding over $1 trillion in new budget deficits each year. Last year, all of the government’s tax revenue was used to cover Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a few other entitlement programs. Funding for everything else, from the Department of Defense to the National Park Service, went onto the nation’s credit card. We’re even borrowing to pay the $500 million in daily interest payments we owe on the debt. How insane is that?”

Berman continued, “America’s current level of spending is unsustainable. The country has never before been in such a precarious financial position where we are so indebted to foreign governments. The government’s New Year’s resolution must be to defeat our debt now. And this is one resolution they can’t break.”

For more information or to arrange an interview please call Sarah Longwell at 202-463-7650.

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy.

Washington — Reports today indicate that Congress will authorize an increase of the federal debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion before the New Year. The national debt of $12.09 trillion is dangerously close to the current limit of $12.104 trillion.

The Employment Policies Institute recently launched its Defeat the Debt campaign, a high-profile, multi-million dollar public awareness effort highlighting the threat posed by unsustainable borrowing and spending.

Richard Berman, Executive Director of the Employment Policies Institute, made the following statement in response to these reports:

Raising the debt ceiling by hiding it in a “must-pass” defense spending bill is another old Washington gimmick meant to remove some pressure from an otherwise difficult vote. The American people deserve better than a hasty vote under the cover of darkness. A decision of this magnitude merits an up-or-down vote, so that every elected member of Congress directly acknowledges the mess we are in.

The Defeat the Debt campaign is all about getting people to understand the frightening reality of the massive federal deficit. People do not realize just how much $12.09 trillion is and what it will take for our country to get out from under that level of debt. Americans also don’t grasp just 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. Raising the debt ceiling won’t solve the debt crisis, just like buying bigger pants isn’t a cure for obesity.

For more information visit DefeatTheDebt.com

The Employment Policies Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to studying public policy issues that affect the American economy. For additional information or to schedule an interview with a spokesperson call 202.463.7650.