Newspaper Page Text
Page 2 December 10, 2023 StarNews www.starnewsgaonline.com
Concord Coalition presents informal workshop on federal budget process to help educate citizens
submitted by Anne C. Richards,
Margery Bouris, and the League of
Women Voters Carrollton/Carroll County
As members of the U.S. Congress struggle
with decision-making regarding the federal
budget and the debt-limit, citizens of Carrollton
and Carroll County got an opportunity to better
understand problems tacing the national econ
omy and the complicated nature of any means
of resolving them through decisions made
about the federal budget.
Co-sponsored by the Carroll County
Democratic Party of Georgia,
the Carroll County Georgia
Republican Party, the Carroll
County NAACP and the
League of Women Voters
Carrollton/ Carroll County (in
alphabetical order), on
November 14, 2023, national
Concord Coalition Field
Director Phil Smith, intro
duced local citizens to ele
ments of the budget creation
process and the economic
challenges we fece as a coun
try. He then invited them to
engage in the kind of open and honest dialogue
required to make progress on developing a
sound and sensible federal budget.
The Concord Coalition is a nation-wide non
partisan coalition which conducts countless
seminars and workshops in an effort to encour
age fiscal responsibility. It helps educate the
public about the federal budget and the need to
protect our children and future generations
from excessive government debt.
concordcoalition.org
Meeting in randomly-chosen groups with a
workbook on “Principles and Priorities,” citi
zens were asked to talk about ways to reduce
projected federal deficits over the next ten
years as they examined a variety of possible
spending and revenue policies. Some options
reduced spending and/or raised revenues,
thereby reducing future budget deficits. Other
policies increased spending and/or lowered
taxes, which would result in increased deficits.
Participants reviewed over 37 options for
government spending in a wide variety of areas
(including general matters affecting education,
national security and defense spending, health
care and social security, taxes
and revenues). Participants
were then asked to make the
“hard choices” that would
potentially increase the deficit
by $4 trillion or reduce it by
approximately $12 trillion over
the coming decade.
In carrying out this
assignment, they were asked to
consider how their decisions
affected the economy (jobs and
wages) in both the short and
the long term; how focusing
on deficit reduction alone
might have policy impacts that would affect
the nation’s future in harmful or negative ways;
and whether decisions they made might (or
might not) be supported by other voters or
enable lawmakers to be re-elected by their
constituents.
Workshop participants were given access to
a detailed “Budget Options Book” which pro
vided a non- partisan spectrum of ideas about
the pros and cons of approving the various
budget proposals. This material is available at
the website of the Concord Coalition or by
contacting psmith@concordcoalition.org.
At the end of the workshop, each group
reported its decisions about the options pro
vided. Not surprisingly, each group arrived at a
different set of recommendations for the fed
eral budget.
In making their choices, all the groups used
both tax increases and decreases, and program
expansion and reduction to achieve their final
budgets, each of which resulted in a significant
decrease in the federal deficit over the next 10
years. It should be noted that none of the
groups felt that, as legislators, they would be
re-electable based upon their budget decisions.
This may suggest that getting politics out of the
equation does make budget-making a much
more efficient and reasonable activity.
While the groups were randomly assembled,
it was clear, even among these small groups,
that budget decisions and the discussions
around them can depend upon not only politi
cal orientation, but other variables, such as age.
For example, one group was composed of four
“elders” and one young person. In that group,
the elders tended to focus on protecting social
security and healthcare, while the young par
ticipant kept reminding the group to consider
the wishes or perceptions of a majority of their
constituents regardless of their personal views
in order to be re-elected.
In general, the exercise revealed the impor
tance of citizens being better informed about
the budget and of electing persons who have
the willingness to educate themselves suffi
ciently well on the cmcial issues underlying
each option under consideration. While the
evening’s exercises led to increased under
standing and sympathy for members of
Congress faced with putting together our fed
eral budget, participants also wondered: “If we
can do it, why can’t Congress?”
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It should be noted that
none of the groups felt
that, as legislators, they
would be re-electable
based upon their budget
decisions. This may
suggest that getting
politics out of the
equation does make
budget-making a much
more efficient and
reasonable activity.
1
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Love Letters
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at The Depot on Bradley
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