I.O.U.S.A - Addison Wiggin [20]
revenues, and that
“ Right now, ” offers Ms. Rivlin, “ if you look at the fed- means it has to eral budget, [the government] is running a defi cit and it will borrow money.
probably run a defi cit for the next several years. Those defi cits are not off the charts. We have been there before. But what is really worrisome is the longer - run future. ”
Under current rules, Federal spending for three programs —
Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — will rise very rapidly over the next few years.
Rivlin continues: “ Increases in longevity and rising medical care spending are symptoms of being a rich country. However, we have got to do something about it. Unless we are willing to raise taxes and keep on raising them, or close down the rest of the federal government, we ’ ve got a very big problem staring us in the face. We ’ ve got to decide, are we getting our money ’ s worth for all of this spending? And who ’ s going to pay for it? ”
Bearing these high debt levels and forcing future generations to pay for current programs is at odds with the ideas written and espoused by the founders of the country. “ Jefferson went on record saying that it was immoral for one generation to load up the next generation with debt, ” says best - selling author and friend Bill Bonner. “ In private life we don ’ t do that. A person goes to his grave and his debts go with him, more or less. ” (We met with Bill several times during the fi lming of I.O.U.S.A. His ideas were instrumental in the development of the fi lm.)
“ In public we have this system whereby one generation can spend money before it ’ s been earned, ” Bill continues. “ Then somebody ’ s got to pay that money in the future, and that somebody is the next generation. To me that is an immoral situation, and it ’ s not just immoral, it ’ s fundamentally wrong
— and mean
— for one generation to spend the
next generation ’ s money. ”
c02.indd 33
8/26/08 8:42:43 PM
34 The
Mission
The Concerned Youth of America
The idea that future generations should have to foot the bill for decisions they were too young
— or not even alive
— to
make doesn ’ t sit well with a minority of aware and active young people today.
One group we were introduced to by Harry Zeeve calls themselves
“ the Concerned Youth of America
” (CYA).
Rightfully so, the members of the CYA see the defi cit spending engaged in by the U.S. government as a modern form of taxation without representation.
“ When we thought of the idea of starting Concerned Youth of America, ” says Yoni Gruskin, one of the organization ’ s founders, “ the goal was to be the face of the generation that ’ s going to be affected by the national debt and to try to put a human touch to it. ”
Concerned Youth
The organization
’ s founding members
— Yoni Gruskin,
of America (CYA): John Gwin, Prateek Kumar, Martin Serna, and Mike Tully —
The CYA was
were not your average high school students. In the early created to increase
months of 2007, as seniors at the prestigious Phillips Academy awareness of the
United States’
in Andover, Massachusetts, they took it upon themselves to fi nances among
create this nonpartisan organization to help raise awareness the nation’s youth.
among their generation about the United States ’ fi scal chal-This non-partisan
lenges. After all, they will be the ones footing the bill tomor-organization
now exists on
row for today ’ s reckless spending.
college campuses
“ It stinks, ” says the organization ’ s director of communica-throughout the
tions, Mike Tully. “ Our parents talk our ears off from the time country and has
we ’ re ten about fi nancial responsibility — this is what you have been successful in
to do, don ’ t get into credit card debt, you have to pay for what holding a number
of grassroots
you buy, you have to save your money. Then the politicians educational
who are supposed to represent your values and represent activities.
what you want, they just are doing the same thing. They