The Concord Coalition's Debt Badge

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The Concord Coalition's
Debt Badge

With the National Debt now exceeding $8 trillion and Congress debating proposals to add to that total, The Concord Coalition recently unveiled our new business card sized debt clock. Easy to display or to wear, it approximates the debt's real time growth and is reminiscent of Concord's trailer-sized debt clock.

The badge is available to supporters of the Concord Coalition. To request one, send an email with your name, address, and phone number to debtbadge@concordcoalition.org.

Flake, Bixby, and Tanner
Tanner, Hocking, and Cooper

A bipartisan group of Congressman, including Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Representative John Tanner (D-TN), were on-hand at the unveiling. Others who attended included Rep. Alan Boyd (D-FL), Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Concord Coalition Board member, former Representative Charlie Stenholm (D-TX).

In welcoming Tanner and Flake, Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert Bixby thanked the Republican Study Committee and the Blue Dog Democrats for their efforts to raise awareness of the growing debt burden among their colleagues in Congress. "People of different political perspectives can agree that it is neither fiscally nor generationally responsible to run huge deficits today and send the bill to our kids," Bixby said.

The debt badge was the idea of Concord Coalition volunteer, Reverend Charles Hocking of Wilmington, North Carolina. They were made possible by Rev. Hocking's hard work and a generous donation from the children of Seymour Durst, the man who put up the original debt clock in New York's Times Square. "Rev. Hocking's efforts should remind us all that one individual can make a real difference," said Concord Coalition National Field Director Harry Zeeve. "Seeing the debt mount second by second is an opportunity to educate the public about fiscal policy. We hope it spurs a broader debate on Social Security, Medicare, and the hard choices necessary to craft sustainable policy," he said.

"The reckless borrow-and-spend fiscal patterns our leadership is engaging in today will pose a long-term burden on our future generations. They will have to pay that debt off, with interest, in what some of us call a 'debt tax.' What is even more alarming is that 85% of these interest payments are going overseas to the foreign countries who have been buying our debt to finance our day-to-day operations because we don't have the discipline to balance the federal budget. This problem is very troubling, and I want to thank the Concord Coalition for its help in raising public awareness on just how grave this nation's financial situation is."

-- Congressman John Tanner

"With the national debt climbing farther and farther above the $8 trillion mark, it is painfully obvious our government needs to learn to live within its means. The debt badges worn by the Blue Dogs will serve as a constant reminder of our nation's growing financial problems. We must develop a reasonable and responsible plan to keep America from going even deeper into debt. The Blue Dogs stand ready to do the right thing for America, and it is my hope that my colleagues in Congress and the Administration will heed our calls and start to take the national debt and our growing deficit seriously."

-- Congressman Alan Boyd

"Americans need to realize that Washington has been doing this Orwellian double-speak on deficit reduction. Congress talks about deficit reduction, but then approves a so-called deficit reduction bill that actually increases the deficit. We simply cannot afford this kind of irresponsible spending any longer, and the continually increasing numbers on the clock make that powerfully clear."

-- Congressman Jim Cooper

Of Interest:

Instructions for the debt badge

National Debt Facts

National Debt Presentation

Pictures from the Event

Public Debt to the Penny (updated daily)