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Fact Sheet about Enact the Plan Inc.

Citizens for Enacting the Simpson-Bowles Plan

2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

Fact Sheet

WHO: Citizens for Enacting The Simpson-Bowles Plan, a grassroots organization launched by Franklin, Tennessee resident Tim Pagliara to urge Congress and the President to urgently reconsider moving Simpson-Bowles forward.

WHAT: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (Simpson-Bowles) is a bipartisan group commissioned by President Obama in 2010 to study the nation's fiscal challenges and recommend solutions. The group met for 8 months in 2010, studying reams of cold, hard data and concluded that America is on an unsustainable fiscal path. The Commission "put everything on the table" and outlined difficult – but necessary -- steps to ensure the country does not go broke. We believe the plan has great merit.

WHY THE DEBT: Reckless spending and falling revenues have led to massive borrowing by our government. Since the last time our country's budget was balanced in 2001, the federal debt has increased from 33% to 102% of GDP, the highest it's been since the end of World War II, when it was 120% of GDP. At this rate, some time before 2025, revenue will be able to finance only interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Money for our nation's defense, Homeland Security, transportation, energy and other needs will need to be borrowed from countries that might not share our strategic interests. We believe that's unacceptable.

WHY THE PLAN: The plan was truly bipartisan and represents a sound strategy that begins to address America's out-of-control debt and spending. Said the report: "None of us likes every element of our plan, and each of us had to tolerate provisions we previously or presently oppose in order to reach a principled compromise. We were willing to put our differences aside to forge a plan because our nation will certainly be lost without one." While government leaders have ignored Simpson-Bowles for more than a year, our country has continued to drown in ever-growing debt. As a concerned American, Tim Pagliara felt he must do something to alert his fellow citizens to the seriousness of the situation and the sensible solution that stands before us.

WE BELIEVE:

• That the country's current fiscal direction is unsustainable and unacceptable.
• That our leaders have failed us because they won't address the situation or Plan.
• That the Simpson-Bowles Plan is the best opportunity to begin to resolve the problem.
• That citizens must act by demanding movement forward on this Plan.

The group has developed a Web site that simplifies the plan so Americans can better understand it… and suggests steps they can take to voice their concern. A series of ads in the Tennessean over the next number of weeks should drive attention to the Web site and Report. We're asking citizens to contact their legislators.

NEXT STEPS: With a positive reaction here in Tennessee, we plan to move this effort to other states.

Key Players

Citizens for Enacting the Simpson-Bowles Plan

2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

The Players

Erskine Bowles, co-chair, 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

A businessman and politician from North Carolina, Bowles served from 1997 to 1998 as White House Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, where one of his major responsibilities was dealing with the federal budget negotiations between the White House and Congress. Most recently, he served as the President of the University of North Carolina system (2005 to 2010). He also ran unsuccessfully for a North Carolina United States Senate seat in 2002 and 2004. His business experience includes serving in 1993 as the head of the Small Business Administration and founder of the investment bank Carousel Capital. He is a member of the board of directors of General Motors, Morgan Stanley and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and serves on the North Carolina Advisory Board of DonorsChoose.

Alan Simpson, co-chair, 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

A politician from Wyoming who served from 1979 to 1997 in the U.S. Senate, Simpson has held a number of chairmanships while in Congress, including the Veteran's Affairs Committee, Immigration and Refugee Subcommittee of Judiciary; the Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee; the Social Security Subcommittee and the Committee on Aging. From 1997 to 2000, he taught at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and, for two years, as Director of the School's Institute of Politics. Today, he practices law in his home town of Cody, Wyoming and periodically teaches at the University of Wyoming at Laramie. He has also served as on various commissions, including the Commission for Continuity in Government, Americans for Campaign Reform and the Iraq Study Group.

Commission Members

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT); Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA 31); Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI 4); Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK); Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND); David Cote, Chairman and CEO, Honeywell International; Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID); Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL); Ann Fudge, Former CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands; Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH); Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX 5); Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute and former Director, Office of Management & Budget; Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI 1); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL 9); Rep. John Spratt (D-SC 5); Andrew Stern, President, Service Employees International Union; Executive Director: Bruce Reed, Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to President Clinton.

New America Foundation & the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. New America emphasizes work that is responsive to the changing conditions and problems of our 21st Century information-age economy -- an era shaped by transforming innovation and wealth creation, but also by shortened job tenures, longer life spans, mobile capital, financial imbalances and rising inequality. The foundation's mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last. That ideal is today under strain. Our education and health care systems are struggling with problems of quality, cost and access. The country requires creative means to address its fiscal challenges and pay for needed public, social and environmental investments. Abroad, the United States has yet to fashion sustainable foreign and defense policies that will protect its citizens and interests in a rapidly integrating world. Too often, these challenges have proven impervious to conventional party politics and incremental proposals. With an emphasis on big ideas, impartial analysis and pragmatic solutions, New America invests in outstanding individuals whose ability to communicate to wide and influential audiences can change the country's policy discourse in critical areas, bringing promising new ideas and debates to the fore.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a bipartisan, non-profit organization committed to educating the public about issues that have significant fiscal policy impact. The Committee is made up of some of the nation's leading budget experts including many of the past Chairmen and Directors of the Budget Committees, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the Government Accountability Office, and the Federal Reserve Board. Since 2003, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has been housed at the New America Foundation. New America is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit public policy institute that brings exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation's public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy ideas that transcend the conventional political spectrum. New America sponsors a wide range of research, published writing, conferences and events on the most important issues of our time. President of the CRFB, Maya MacGuineas works with an incredible team of people including Marc Goldwein, Ed Lorenzen, and Frank Micciche.

Tim Pagliara, Citizens for Enacting The Bowles-Simpson Plan

Just named by Barron's as the top financial advisor in the state of Tennessee, Pagliara is chairman and CEO of CapWealth Advisors, a fee-based investment advisory firm with $700 million under management that provides wealth management services to high net worth individuals and families. A highly regarded veteran of the securities industry, Pagliara began his finance career in 1981 as a Limited Partner with Edward Jones, opening the firm's first branch in Franklin. In 1989, he joined Hilliard Lyons and established a second operation for the company in Franklin. He formed the predecessor to CapWealth -- Capital Trust Wealth Management -- in Franklin in early 2000. Pagliara earned a BA degree from St. Louis University (1979), a J.D. degree from St. Louis University School of Law (1983) and is a graduate of the Wharton School Securities Industry Institute at the University of Pennsylvania (1993). He is also a member of the Tennessee Bar Association. He previously made the Barron'sTop 1,000 list in 2009 and 2010.