The Campaign to Fix the Debt, led by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, will be hitting the airwaves in Florida, looking to get voters attention on the national debt.
The American people are fed up with whats going on in Washington, said Simpson on Monday. The national debt is a threat to jobs and our economic future, yet we continue on our course of inaction.
Its going to take real political courage for folks to begin working together to confront the long-term fiscal problems facing the country, insisted Bowles. Now is the time to tell Washington its long past time to fix the debt.
Sunshine State News talked to a spokesman from the Campaign to Fix the Debt on Monday. According to the spokesman, the ad will be run in Florida, nine other states and in Washington, D.C. The ad will be mainly focused in the Tallahassee and Tampa markets and is expected to run from Tuesday until Thursday.
The commercial features Simpson and Bowles -- who were both appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to craft a plan to lower the national debt -- complaining about politicians in Washington for avoiding the issue.
Who isnt fed up with whats going on in Washington? Simpson asks in the ad.
These politicians are playing games," Bowles says in the commercial. Theyre jerking our country around from crisis to crisis.
Despite their attacks on Washington and politicians, both Simpson and Bowles have strong ties to the Beltway and political experience. Simpson served three terms in the U.S. Senate between 1979 and 1997 while Bowles, who was Clintons chief of staff from 1997-1998, unsuccessfully ran for the Senate from his home state of North Carolina in 2002 and 2004.
In the ad, Simpson and Bowles urge viewers to head to the Campaign to Fix the Debts website to learn more." On the site, the Campaign to Fix the Debt is gathering petitions demanding a common-sense solution to prevent disaster and renew America's economic strength. So far, more than 359,000 people have signed the petition.
In Florida, the state chapter of the Campaign to Fix the Debt is led by University of Miami President Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration, and former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez who once chaired the Republican National Committee. Other Floridians active with the state chapter include: Paul Stebbins, the executive chairman of World Fuel Services Corp.; former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., who was defeated in the 2006 gubernatorial race; new media publisher and attorney Justin Sayfie; former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch; former state Sen. Ron Silver; Libertarian gubernatorial hopeful Adrian Wylie; and former Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Sean Shaw who is running for a Florida House seat as a Democrat.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinDerbySSN.
