I.O.U.S.A. (2 page)

If a four - year - old can get it, then why is so hard for a vast majority of current federal elected offi cials? Are they in denial or just happy to kick the can down the road while they leave key sustainability challenges for someone else?

In large part, I believe the greatest defi cit that the United States has right now is a leadership defi cit. You ’ ll hear more about this and our nation ’ s other defi cits in this book and in the fi lm.

Subsequent to our Phoenix trip, my offi ce at the GAO

was contacted by the fi lm crew who requested to meet with me about a documentary they were planning to do on federal defi cits and debt. Since I had done a number of electronic interviews and was obviously interested in the topic, I agreed.

The meeting was attended by Patrick Creadon, Addison Wiggin, Kate Incontrera, and others from Agora Financial.

They provided an overview of the planned documentary, and when they had fi nished I said, “ Does this have anything to do with the book
Empire of Debt
? ” Addison and Patrick looked at each other and hesitated to speak. Evidently, they didn ’ t know whether I liked the book or not. Once they acknowledge that it did, I noted that I had read it and liked it. After that point, things went well and it was the beginning of a great adventure.

While the book was the initial basis for the documentary, over time it evolved to concentrate more on our efforts in the Fiscal Wake - Up Tour. That Tour is coordinated by the nonpartisan Concord Coalition and it also involves scholars from the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and me. Successful documentaries, Patrick explained to me early on, usually have one or more persons to focus on in order to flast.indd xiii

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xiv Foreword

help personalize the fi lm. I was fortunate to be selected as one such person.

Patrick, Addison, and their crew followed the Tour to several locations across America, including Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Manchester, New Hampshire; Los Angeles, California; and Madison, Wisconsin. They also fi lmed many other subjects

The Fiscal Wake - Up Tour also took on extra notoriety after the CBS
60 Minutes
program decided to do a segment on it. The program helped increase attendance at our events outside Washington as well as the attention paid to our efforts inside Washington ’ s Beltway. The
60 Minutes
segment also paved the way for a timely introduction to our work in the documentary.

We found in our many Town Hall meetings that the American people were smarter than many politicians realized.

Once you state the facts and speak the truth, people get the message. At the same time, the American people are distrustful of Washington. They ’ re starved for two things: truth and leadership.

In November 2007, after many Tour stops, I was fortunate to be recognized as the Concord Coalition ’ s Economic Patriot of the Year. Prior recipients included former president of the United States Bill Clinton, former Treasury secretary Bob Rubin, and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker. Little did I know that in accepting that award, my career path would change once again.

During that evening I made a brief yet substantive acceptance speech. I also had the opportunity to participate in a substantive panel discussion with Rubin, Volcker, former senators Rudman and Kerrey, and the president of the Concord Coalition, Pete Peterson. I must have done all right because about a week later, I received a call from Pete Peterson.

Pete called under the pretense that he wanted my input on his plans to start a new foundation dedicated to trying to address the budget and other key sustainability challenges.

It didn ’ t take long before his real purpose became clear: He wanted me to head his new foundation.

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Foreword
xv

Needless to say, I was fl attered and surprised. And yet I was very happy with my current job and the work I was doing at GAO. While I noted that fact and raised a number of reasons why I felt it probably did not make sense for me to change, Pete was persistent. A couple of months of discussion later, I decided to accept his offer.

My primary reason for deciding to accept was that I became convinced that at my new post I would be able to do certain things to help achieve changes that I could not do as Comptroller General. As the president and CEO of the Peterson Foundation I would be able to advocate specifi c policy solutions, build strong and overt coalitions for change, and stimulate and support the various grassroots efforts designed to pressure Washington policy makers to make tough choices — and to hold them accountable if they failed to act.

I was also interested in working in partnership with Pete, who is a great American and in many ways a case study of the American dream come true.

As I said when asked about leaving my position as Comptroller General and head of the GAO, “ Committed generals do not leave the fi ght, although sometimes they change their position on the battlefi eld. ” I said that we aim to “ keep America strong and the American dream alive by promoting responsibility and accountability today in order to provide more opportunity tomorrow. ”

After joining the Foundation, I proposed and the directors agreed that the Foundation should purchase the documentary from Agora and fi nance its distribution. We are excited about its message and feel strongly that the time is right for it to be heard.

We look forward to the theatrical release of the fi lm and to its later premier on television. We also plan to take other steps to make sure that it is ultimately seen by as many people as possible.

In my view, it is time for elected offi cials to start making tough policy choices in connection with our nation ’ s budget, entitlement programs, spending policies, and tax policies.

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xvi Foreword

Our next president needs to make fi scal responsibility and intergenerational equity a priority. If he does, and if he resists making dumb promises, while using the bully pulpit of the presidency and working on a bipartisan basis to achieve real and lasting change, we can successfully meet this challenge.

If this happens, and a few bipartisan leaders join in the fi ght, we can make sure that our future is better than our past and that the United States is the fi rst republic to stand the test of time. These are goals worth fi ghting for. “ We the People ”

can turn things around. If you agree, then join the fi ght for America ’ s future at www.pgpf.org. You, your country, and your family will be glad that you did.

Honorable David M. Walker

President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation Former Comptroller General of the United States flast.indd xvi

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I.O.U.S.A. Cast of Characters

CAST

Hon. David Walker:
Former U.S. Comptroller General and President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Robert Bixby:
Executive Director of the Concord Coalition.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND):
Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH):
Ranking member, Senate Budget Committee.

Alice Rivlin:
The fi rst director of the Congressional Budget Offi ce and on the team that balanced the budget during the Clinton administration.

William Bonner:
Bestselling author and founder and president of Agora, Inc., a fi nancial research and publishing group.

The Concerned Youth of America:
A grassroots, non-partisan organization whose goal is to increase awareness of the state of the U.S.’s fi nances among the youth of the nation.

Robert Rubin:
70th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury (1995–1999), one of the key players in the Clinton administration’s balanced budget.

Peter G. Peterson:
Co-founded the Concord Coalition in 1992, and founder of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

Paul Volcker:
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board (1979–1987), and best known for battling the infl ation of the early 1980s.

Hon. Ron Paul:
Outspoken proponent of “free market” economics and critic of the Federal Reserve System.

Alan Greenspan:
Chairman of the Federal Board (1987–2006, and still seen as a leading authority on U.S. economic and monetary policy.

Warren Buffett:
CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and regarded as one of the world’s greatest stock market investors.

xvii

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xviii I.O.U.S.A. Cast of Characters

James Areddy:
Correspondent for the
Wall Street Journal
in Shanghai, China.

Paul O’Neill:
72nd Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, who was fi red after 23 months, after having a ‘difference of opinions’ about defi cits with Vice President Cheney.

Art Laffer:
Former member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Board. He is best known for popularizing his Laffer curve.

CREW

Addison Wiggin, Executive Producer

Patrick Creadon, Director

Christine O’Malley, Producer

Sarah Gibson, Producer

Doug Blush, Editor

Brian Oakes, Graphic Design

Theodore James, Associate Producer

Kate Incontrera, Associate Producer

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Acknowledgments

It turns out that reverse engineering a documentary fi lm into a companion book is not as easy as it might sound. Cre-atively, you can convey a lot of information with images, music, and dialogue in a movie that require much more background and setup in a book. There are a number of people we want to thank for allowing us to take six weeks in the summer of 2008 to wrap our heads around two and half years of travel, fi lming, interviews, and research.

First, we want to thank Ian Mathias and Greg Kadajski for holding down the fort in Agora Financial ’ s
5 Min. Forecast
and
The Daily Reckoning,
respectively. Writing, editing, and publishing daily stock market and economic commentary is a daunting task when you ’ re working as a team. Going it alone is much more so. Both have done an admirable job. Thanks to all the folks who work so hard at Agora Financial, including but not limited to Joseph Schriefer, Mark O ’ Dell, Greg Grillot, Chris Mayer, Eric Fry, Michelle Nickels, John Forde, Chad Barrett, and Mike Pizzo, for relieving us of critical duty during the writing of the book, and to Bruce Robertson for helping negotiate all the paperwork and the labyrinthine account ing process.

We ’ d like to thank Bill Bonner, too, not just for his insights in
The Daily Reckoning,
but for biting his tongue and giving us the freedom to explore the documentary project at will. Thanks to Matt Turner, Myles Norin, and Bob Compton for supporting the project legally and fi nancially, and to Scott Weiser and Doug Nevin for ably representing our interests in the fi lm acquisition by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

xix

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xx Acknowledgments

Thank you to David Walker for taking such an interest in our work, for helping us get the story straight on the nation ’ s four defi cits, and for providing the Foreword to this companion piece. It ’ s worth noting that while David wrote the Foreword to this book and his consultation was helpful in piecing the script together, the words in this book are our own and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions advocated by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. In addition, we ’ d like to thank Elizabeth Wilner at the Peterson Foundation. Thanks to Bob Bixby and all the folks at the Concord Coalition for the ideas and insights they contributed to the fi lm and subsequently the book.

A big thank - you goes to the amazing crew that put together the movie: Patrick Creadon, the director; Christine O ’ Malley, Sarah Gibson, and Theodore James, producers extraordinaire; Brian Oakes, who designed all the graphics you see in the fi lm and in this book; and our editor, Doug Blush. We know this subject can be extremely diffi cult, but this group of talented individuals tackled this project wholeheartedly. We are very grateful for the unique vision and insights each person brought to the table to help shape the story of
I.O.U.S.A.
We would also like to thank Jon Carnes and the One Horizon Foundation for getting the fi lm from just an idea we were batting around to a reality, and to Roadside Attractions for getting
I.O.U.S.A.
out into the public eye. A big thank - you to Dorianne Perrucci and the team over at John Wiley

&

Sons, especially Debra Englander, Joan O

’ Neill, and Kelly

O ’ Connor, for all of their hard work on this book and putting up with our unique understanding of deadlines.

We would like to thank the Wiggin and Incontrera families, as well as Craig Stouffer, for their continued support of this project (and of us). Thanks to our friends and co - workers for putting up with our hectic schedules, being a sounding board when needed, and even providing us with a place to write (thanks, Kyle!).

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Acknowledgments xxi

Last, we would like to thank the distinguished group of experts who allowed us to interrupt their busy lives to sit down with us to be interviewed for
I.O.U.S.A.
:

• Alice Rivlin

• William Bonner

• Robert Rubin

• Peter G. Peterson

• Ron Paul

• Paul Volcker

• Alan Greenspan

• Warren Buffett

• James Areddy

• Paul O ’ Neill

• Arthur Laffer

• Steve Forbes

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