On Tuesday, October 17, former Republican senator Alan K. Simpson, of Wyoming, delivered the 2011 Paul H. Douglas Lecture on Ethics in Government at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Simpson is working to deliver a message to legislators in Washington: now is the time to act; the era of denial is over.
Simpson said that bold steps must be taken immediately to address the nation’s long-term fiscal condition. He outlined the plan he and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles created to save trillions of dollars through entitlement and tax code reform.
Simpson’s lecture—peppered with humor and candor—stressed the importance of doing the right thing, despite popular opinion and politics. Simpson has a reputation for telling it like it is; he is a straight shooter who stuck to his values as a legislator despite criticism from both sides of the aisle.
He faced another important test of his integrity when President Obama tapped him in early 2010 to co-chair the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform with Bowles. Simpson and his colleagues were tasked with the monumental task of finding a way to reduce the nation’s deficit.
Simpson said the U.S. faces a debt that is impossible to comprehend. “[The deficit] is at $16 trillion something,” Simpson said. “Do you know when the big bang happened, that created the universe? That was about 13 billion, 600 million years ago. And we’re in the hole [almost] 17 trillion. A trillion is a thousand billions. Nobody has any concept of where we are.”
Simpson described the difficult process by which the members of the commission faced this staggering reality and built trust as they deliberated and attempted to reach bipartisan agreement.
The resulting plan was not met with support from either side of the aisle. As Simpson described it, “You’re on the cover of Time one week, and six months later you’re doin’ it. We’ve all felt the sting of the lash.”
The overwhelming rejection of the plan reflected the mood of the nation, which had not yet faced what Simpson reiterated as “the moment of truth.”
“The game is over,” Simpson said. “If you want it, pay for it.”
Simpson outlined the plan’s major point: we cannot avoid addressing the country’s biggest—and most expensive—problems, which include tax reform, Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.
Simpson suggested several strategies to deal with these politically toxic issues. Health care costs should be addressed by adjusting payment formulas and drug rebates for Medicaid and Medicare. Legislators must increase the retirement age and slow the growth of benefits for Social Security, despite pushback by powerful lobbies such as the AARP. And finally, any final plan must raise revenue through tax reform, which should eliminate tax breaks, thereby allowing the U.S. to reduce individual and corporate tax rates to promote economic growth.
IGPA asked Simpson to deliver the lecture as part of the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government. The University of Illinois honored Simpson and Bowles with the award in June 2011. The University of Illinois created the award in 1992 to honor the memory of Paul H. Douglas, who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1949-1967. During his time in Washington, Douglas became known as the “conscience of the Senate” because of his commitment to high ethical standards.
Read about the Douglas Award in Ethics and Government
Learn more about the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform
Learn more about the Moment of Truth Project
