Contacts: Jennifer Myers
Director of Public Affairs, The Aspen Institute
202-736-2906/jennifer.myers@aspeninstitute.org
Video available from talks with Alan Simpson, Hank Paulson, Sheila Bair, and others
Aspen, CO – Experts and leaders shared their views on the debt and deficit reduction at the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival, including Alan Greenspan, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Sheila Bair, and Alan Simpson. Highlights and full session embeddable videos are available at http://www.aifestival.org/blog/deficit-and-debt-ceiling-4-must-see-video-clips.
Highlights:
“I think it would be quite [unsettling] to investors and creditors of this country if we raise the debt limit without having a credible deficit reduction plan.” – Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
“It’s unthinkable to me that the United States of America is ever going to default.” – Henry Paulson, former secretary of the US Treasury Department
“[The Chinese] recognize they have a stake in the system. They’ve got a big stake in the US economy doing well.” – Henry Paulson, former secretary of the US Treasury Department
“I think frankly this is an unnecessary problem. The debt ceiling serves no useful purpose because once you’ve created a set of obligations you fix spending and we have a revenue code which engenders revenues…unless your arithmetic is subnormal, you know what the debt ceiling theoretically is.” – Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the United States Federal Reserve
“Our critical issues are technically solve-able. The policy makers who base their views on analysis and or facts instead of opinions and ungrounded ideology could find every common ground to move forward in ways that would meet the needs that we have and be broadly viewed as sensible to the American people.” – Robert Rubin, former secretary of the US Treasury Department
“If we’ve forgotten we’re Americans first instead of members of groups, we ain’t got a prayer.” – Alan Simpson, co-chairman of The White House National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility
For more quotes and highlights from throughout the Festival check out our blog at http://www.aifestival.org/blog.
###