Voter Town Hall in Key Swing State of Virginia Finds Overwhelming Support for "No Budget, No Pay"

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of a national bus tour of swing states, Hon. David M. Walker, CEO of Comeback America Initiative, and Hon. Alice M. Rivlin, of The Brookings Institution, conducted a special four-hour town hall Saturday with about 200 Virginia registered voters. Participants were selected to be representative of statewide demographics in the areas of gender, age, race, household income, and political affiliation.

Walker and Rivlin provided an overview of the federal budget challenge, and reviewed various principles and illustrative reforms in eight areas: Budget, Social Security, Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid, Defense, Taxes, Transforming Government and Political Reforms. Throughout the event, participants digitally registered their opinions, offering a real-time glimpse into voter sentiment in one of the nation's key swing states. 

The results were overwhelming. For example, ninety-one percent of town hall participants registered support for "No Budget, No Pay" and other budget reforms. The No Budget, No Pay reform calls for withholding the pay of Members of Congress if they do not pass a budget and all appropriations bills before the beginning of the fiscal year.

"From Manchester, to Denver, to Orlando, to Raleigh, the words No Budget, No Pay earned cheers and sustained applause from crowds," said Mr. Walker, the former U.S. Comptroller General. "In addition, other proposed reforms received super-majority support and not one person throughout the Tour felt that our political system was functioning well."

"The $10 Million a Minute Tour is a historic issue oriented campaign," said Alice Rivlin, member of the Presidential Debt Commission and former head of the Office of Management and Budget. "Dave Walker spent five weeks and covered about 10,000 miles engaging voters with the truth, tough choices and non-partisan solutions that should be able to gain bipartisan support." Rivlin continued, "Neither party can rightfully lay claim to having all the answers. We'll all need to make hard compromises, but it is critical that we do so and soon."

The final tour event will be Wednesday at the National Press Club, where Mr. Walker and Ms. Rivlin will present additional findings on national voter sentiment regarding the federal budget, Social Security, health care, Medicare and Medicaid, defense, taxes and political reform. 

The  Walker/Rivlin Newsmaker event will be held at 1 PM on Oct. 10 in the Zenger Room at the National Press Club.

The economy, national debt, and deficit spending are the No. 1 issue in the presidential campaign. And the timing is crucial. The U.S. government faces a "fiscal cliff" at the end of 2012. At the same time, "Looming beyond the so-called fiscal cliff is an even greater problem," Walker says. "America's total government debt/GDP ranks just behind Greece. If we continue on our current trajectory, we face a much great fiscal abyss that threatens our nation's and families' futures, as well as the global economy."

For more information on the $10 Million a Minute Tour, visit www.10millionaminute.com.

CONTACT:

Bill Beaman, OnPoint Strategies, 301-767-7806, [email protected] 
Sarah Small, Comeback America Initiative, 203-332-3207, [email protected]

SOURCE Comeback America Initiative