K-12 Tax & Spending Climate: Trump’s debt clock ticks as Iowans try deficit reduction

Kathie Obradovich::

The Concord Coalition, which conducted the budget exercise at Drake on Tuesday, is in its 25th year of preaching the gospel of debt reduction. Concord Coalition doesn’t follow either party’s talking points on the budget. The organization argues for reining in spending, particularly on entitlements as the worker-to-retiree ratio continues to shrink. That’s not a popular subject with Democrats.

But it also does not embrace the GOP’s small-government mantra or the idea that cutting taxes magically leads to economic growth. The Concord Coalition’s bottom line is whether we want a big government or a small one, we should pay for the size of government we have.

Having admittedly failed to make financial restraint a priority in the 2016 election, the non-partisan organization was in Iowa trying to plant new seeds for 2020.

In the last presidential campaign, voters did not insist that candidates present detailed budget proposals. “The budget plans in the last cycle were a joke,” he said. “That just cannot happen again.”