Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 14, 1994 TAG: 9404140026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KEVIN DANIELS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While standing at the corner of Campbell Avenue and Jefferson Street, former Congressman Jim Olin, the co-chairman of the new chapter, could not have foreseen that the weather would cooperate, too.
As threatening storm clouds hovered over the electronic sign that ticks off the growing $4.5 trillion national debt - now increasing at a rate of $12,000 per second - Olin discussed the goal of the coalition.
"We've got a subject that's been raining on the country for some time," Olin said. "We're trying to bring some clear skies."
He said the coalition's mission is to educate Americans about the effects of the national debt and the annual budget deficit on the country's economy.
The Concord Coalition was formed in 1992 by two former senators: Warren Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican, and Paul Tsongas, a Massachusetts Democrat who made a bid for the presidency in the last election.
In 1993 the pair introduced a plan to eliminate the deficit by the year 2000, a goal that would halt the increase of the national debt. The plan proposed the obvious cuts, such as eliminating programs that are featured in supermarket tabloids as examples of government waste, and went on to suggest other, more radical solutions.
The Concord Coalition supports a 50-cent per gallon tax increase on gasoline as well as higher sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco. The plan also proposes raising the Social Security retirement age to 68 while reducing benefits for Social Security and Medicare recipients earning more than $40,000 per year.
Bob Bixby, the Virginia coordinator of the coalition, said the organization takes its cue from Thomas Jefferson, who said that "to preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt."
But Bixby said there is a reason behind the coalition's insistence on a balanced budget.
"The Concord Coalition is into this thing not because we're obsessed with zeros but because we're concerned about the future of this country," he said.
Bixby referred to the General Assembly's passage of a resolution designating April 16 as Federal Budget Deficit Education Day. He said that the coalition will be sponsoring Debtbusters 2000, a role-playing game, to commemorate the day.
Players of the game act as members of Congress and attempt to balance the federal budget. "People see the actual choices we need to make to tackle (the deficit)," Bixby said.
Olin added that because Virginia has had a balanced budget for "years and years and years and years," the state's seven coalition chapters are in a good position to organize a grass-roots campaign to urge the federal government to adopt a deficit-reduction plan.
Olin and Bixby were joined by former Congressman M. Caldwell Butler, co-chairman of the Roanoke-Salem chapter, who emphasized that the coalition is a bipartisan organization.
"We're serving notice today that this is a serious effort," Butler said, minutes before the clouds began to break up.
by CNB