This page is intended to address any misconceptions that you might have heard about AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy. Below, you’ll find a list of incorrect claims that we’ve heard, and our response to them.
| MYTH: AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy was either (a) a liberal effort to raise taxes, or (b) a conservative effort to cut Social Security | FACT: AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy was an effort to engage the American people in the debate over our nation’s fiscal future. Many options for the public considered during the national discussion will be presented, from reducing spending to raising taxes. Our goal was not to advocate for any of the options, but rather to create a space where Americans could learn about a wide range of options and consider the trade-offs involved with putting our nation on a long-term, sustainable fiscal path. We did not encourage participants to support any option and will provided all participants with opportunities to add their own options to the discussion.
Since the national discussion, we’ve heard criticisms from both sides of the political aisle, accusing us of bias one way or the other. The simple truth is that Our Budget, Our Economy was a nonpartisan event, and our follow-up actions remain nonpartisan. From where we stand, the fact that we have been criticized from both the right and the left means that we’re doing something right to avoid bias! |
| MYTH: AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy had a conservative/liberal bias. | FACT: AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy is politically neutral. We took the following steps to help ensure neutrality:
For more, please review our Statement of Neutrality. The decisions participants made as a result of the conversations were be theirs and theirs alone. AmericaSpeaks didn’t be make the decisions or come to the conclusions – the people who participate did. |
| MYTH: AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy will harm our economic recovery by encouraging deficit reduction in the short-term over job creation | FACT: The National Town Meeting only considered long-term options that would begin after our economy has recovered. People may disagree about the appropriate steps that should be taken to support our nation’s economic recovery, but that discussion was not the focus of the National Town Meeting. We believe it is important to plan ahead for the future and start finding agreement now, so that policies can be implemented in the years to come. |
| MYTH: The timing of the Town Meetings was an effort to blame the deficit on the policies of the current or previous presidential administration. | FACT: The AmericaSpeaks: Our Budget, Our Economy project was not an effort to blame any presidential administrations, past or present, for the state of the U.S. economy. The challenge of addressing the national deficit is not a simple one, and we believe that the American public must come together in neutral spaces to understand the issue from all angles and set our national priorities so our legislators know where to stand as a nation. We were pleased to create those neutral spaces and present this unique opportunity to Americans. |
| MYTH: AmericaSpeaks is associated with the organization America Speaking Out. | FACT: AmericaSpeaks is in no way connected to America Speaking Out, which is a Republican sponsored initiative. |
join in on twitter
