WASHINGTON The Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization based here and headed up by industry lobbyist Richard Berman, has launched a multimedia campaign assailing the massive national debt.
The EPI expects to spend about $1 million on a campaign scheduled to run through the calendar year. It currently is running commercials on four cable news stations and full-page ads in six newspapers, as well as a new website, www.DefeatTheDebt.com.
Berman, who serves as executive director of the EPI, said, "Spending is out of control and paying off the debt will fall on businesses and higher net-worth individuals. We're trying to get people to understand the enormity of the debt."
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget projects the national debt will reach $24 trillion by 2019. At that time, annual interest payments on the debt will reach $774 billion, more than proposed spending on national defense, Berman said.
One of the EPI's newspaper ads depicts the Titanic sinking underneath the headline, "Think America is ÔUnsinkable?'" At the bottom of the ad, it reads, "The Debt Disaster: It's Closer Than You Think."
"Clearly, the spending equation has to be changed," Berman said. "People need to understand they can't tax the most productive people in our society to pay for this."
Maintaining that the government has "overpromised an enormous amount of benefits," Berman said: "You can't fund it on the backs of the business community who will just end up passing it along in the form of higher prices. We're driving full speed ahead on a dark road toward a cliff."
Berman writes a monthly column for Nation's Restaurant News.
Contact Paul Frumkin at [email protected]