SALON

Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012 12:45 PM UTC

New group: America’s youth cry out for sensible, moderate deficit reduction

A hip new group of "activists" pretends the youth believe in austerity -- and lower taxes for the rich

By

Topics: Federal Deficit, deficit hawks, Debt, Pete Peterson,

New group: America's youth cry out for sensible, moderate deficit reductionA graphic illustrating how Thecankicksback.org believes debt affects the economy (Credit: thecankicksback.org)

Some inspiring news for these often dark times: A group of young activists is making headlines for their fight against debt. It is good to see “The Youth” getting involved, and obviously crushing consumer and student loan debt is deeply hurting a generation already disproportionately harmed by the Great Recession.

Haha, just kidding, they are actually getting headlines because they’re launching a campaign about the federal debt. Because, you know, that is a thing kids care about. Let’s meet these do-gooders, courtesy of Suzy Khimm at Ezra Klein’s respected “WonkBlog.”

A group of young deficit hawks is making it their mission to warn the Millennial Generation about the dangers of an out-of-control deficit through a new organization called the Can Kicks Back. “The debt is now the top of line issue for most young people. We believe it’s the most important issue,” said Ryan Schoenike, president of the group. “Not addressing this issue leads to a lower situation — higher taxes, less jobs, more debt.”

Oh Ryan. The federal debt is not “the top of line issue for most young people.” That is a weird lie.

The group is launching a grass-roots effort to get Millennials to call members of Congress to push for a grand bargain, pushing the message through online advertising and partnerships with groups such as Fix the Debt, which has rallied CEOs. (The name “the Can Kicks Back” is a reference to the criticism that lawmakers have simply “kicked the can down the road” on the deficit.) Led by twenty- and thirtysomethings, the effort has the potential to put a more youthful face on the anti-deficit movement, which has often been identified with octogenerians like Alan Simpson and Pete Peterson.

Octogenarians like Alan Simpson — who is in fact on the Can Kicks Back’s “board of advisers.” He is joined on that board by beloved millennial dreamboats Erskine Bowles, Evan Bayh and former comptroller David Walker.

Now I don’t want to alarm you, but there is some evidence that this is not quite the spontaneous grass-roots movement of young deficit hawks that it appears to be. The Can Kicks Back is run by Ryan Schoenike and Nick Troiano. Those two were also involved in the “Draft David Walker” campaign, a doomed attempt to build a groundswell of support for Walker to run on the ballot lines purchased by the idiot millionaires behind Americans Elect. The Can organization’s address is the same as that of the New America Foundation, a pro-entitlement reform think tank funded by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Also at that address: Fix the Debt. You can probably guess what that particular “grass-roots” group is about.

All of these organizations are part of the decades-long campaign by single-minded rich person Pete Peterson to convince Americans that they should give up their Social Security and Medicare to “fix the debt.” (Or as the Can Kicks Back puts it, “F#% THE DEBT.” Radical, dudes! Let’s lower rates, eliminate loopholes and chug some brews!) Peterson has probably spent a billion dollars, over decades, starting and funding dozens of organizations dedicated to pushing deficit reduction via entitlement cuts. This new “millennial”-themed organization is not even his first “pretend youth group” attempt. In 1993, he founded “Third Millennium.” In 1992 he founded “Lead … Or Leave.”

All of these organizations get a great deal of media attention, because after years of relentless deficit scolding, Peterson has successfully won over pretty much the entirety of the Beltway press to his point of view. (Most political journalists see advocating for deficit reduction as “common sense” and moderate, not as “biased” or political.)

In the short term the debt is completely harmless. In the medium term it’s harmless! I guess eventually if it is a problem we can raise some taxes on people and buy fewer billion-dollar war airplanes that don’t work. (Also single-payer healthcare, for everyone.). But that is a debate we can have when Americans have jobs and money again. In the meantime, actual real-life young Americans need jobs. Some of them need help paying for college. Many need health insurance. And all of them who get old will want to retire. What would not help them, in any way, is the Peterson deficit reduction plan, which has essentially remained the same for many years now. It is written entirely in vague code, but it basically involves raising the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare and, for some reason, lowering taxes. Yes, lowering them. The only thing The Kids Today love more than Instagramming their Facebooks is “comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform, which broadens the base, lowers rates, raises revenues, and reduces the deficit,” right? #YOLO.

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 20 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations