Text Size:

Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper

It's time to tell Congress that if We The People can have a tough conversation on debt and deficit issues, so can they. While the Commission did not secure 14 votes, 11 members representing a bipartisan majority of the commission were able to reach across partisan lines to support the Commission's plan.

You can send a message to Congress and to the nation by writing letters to the editor in your area. Enter your zip code to find a list of newspapers in your area. Then, you can use the text we've suggested or customize your letter.

Click here for a guide on writing a Letter to the Editor.

Step 1 - Select a Recipient

Below are the newspapers in your area. Select the one that you'd like to send a letter to.

Step 2 - Write your message

Subject:

Your Letter:

This summer, I took part in a national discussion about our country’s growing debt to develop recommendations for a fiscal commission created by President Obama. I was joined by residents from our community and thousands of other Americans at 57 sites across the country, each of whom spent the day working to find common ground on the tough choices involved with reducing our annual deficits.

This week, the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform produced its recommendations to Congress about how the federal government can reduce the growing gap between our spending and revenues. The Commission’s report challenges our political system and the American people to seriously confront the difficult trade-offs required to address our nation’s long-term deficits.

Many assumed that the differences between Democrats and Republicans on the President’s Commission would be insurmountable and that our polarized politics would mean that our leaders would find no common ground to address the fiscal challenges that threaten our nation.

While the critics were right that the Commission would be unable to secure the super-majority required by the President’s Executive Order, the report was endorsed by a bi-partisan group of 11 out of the Commission’s 18 members, including prominent liberal and conservative Senators like Richard Durbin (D-IL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Mike Crapo (R-ID). While fault may certainly be found with the Commission’s recommendations, I’d like to congratulate the members of the Commission for working across their partisan differences in the spirit of the common good.

From my experience this summer, I can testify that the American public is willing and able to have a hard conversation about taxes and spending. For a full day in June, I sat with people from across the political spectrum and deliberated about all sorts of options including reducing spending on health care and national defense, simplifying our tax code, and raising income taxes. And unlike much of what we see in the media today, there was no screaming or fighting. Just regular Americans working together to solve a problem.

Nearly two-thirds of the table groups across the country who took part in the AmericaSpeaks discussion were able to reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next 15 years. This was all possible because people were given the time and information they needed to have real conversations about how to solve a serious problem facing our nation.

By the end of the long day of hard work it was clear that participants wanted to send more than a policy message to Congress, we wanted to send a process message as well: we did this, so can you.  We treated our fellow discussants as committed, honest people who shared our concerns over our nation’s future.  We never mistook our disagreement over policy for a moral indictment of the person making the statement.  We treated each other as citizens, not as enemies or even opponents.  In the end we all made compromises, sometimes supporting options that might hurt us personally, in order to put our national fiscal house in order.

Some of the things that we thought were important in our discussion this summer ended up in the Commission’s report, including a significant reduction in defense spending and an increase in the cap on the Social Security payroll tax to cover 90 percent of wages. Other reforms that are in the report were not supported by national discussion participants, including raising the retirement age for receiving Social Security benefits.

As President Obama and leaders in Congress turn their attention to the Commission’s report and decide how our nation should handle the fiscal challenges ahead of us, I hope that they will consider what several thousand Americans had to say when they came together this summer. More importantly, I hope that they will continue to engage the American public and follow our example by looking for ways to find common ground across the many differences that so often keep us from moving forward.

The American people will step up to this challenge if they are given the chance. I hope that Congress gives them the chance to do so.

For more information about the results of this summer’s national discussion, visit usabudgetdiscussion.org.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

City*

State/Province*

Zip/Postal Code*

Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper

Step 1 - Select a Recipient

Step 2 - Write your message

stay in the loop

speak out

About Our Budget, Our Economy

US Budget & Economy 101

What is a National Town Meeting?

Write a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Paper

Step 1 - Select a Recipient

Step 2 - Write your message

stay in the loop

speak out

join more discussions on:

About Our Budget, Our Economy

US Budget & Economy 101

What is a National Town Meeting?