New movement warns D.C.: Lead or leave

Frustrated with what they saw as an apathetic twentysomething generation, Rob Nelson and Jon Cowan sat down for coffee and considered what to do about the growing national debt, which they saw as robbing their generation of its inheritance. What they decided was to ask young Americans to Lead . . . or Leave. That was seven months ago, and Lead . . . or Leave, Nelson and Cowan's grassroots campaign to cut the national debt in half by 1996, hit Washington with full impact and has kept running at full speed. With an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 members, the organization has been challenging the Washington establishment. During the 1992 election, Lead . . . or Leave asked the candidates to pledge to cut the federal debt in half or not seek reelection. The group organized town meetings, teach-ins, rallies, and asked students across the country to donate half a day of community service if the deficit is reduced. By asking Americans to sign their "people's pledge" -- which states that each American's share of the national debt is $16,000 -- leaders of Lead . . . or Leave said they hope to gather enough popular support to force Congress to enact sweeping budget reforms to reduce the debt. Generational identity and conflict seems to have played a large part in Lead . . . or Leave's origins. "We haven't been involved in the political process," James Chadam, national field director for Lead . . . or Leave, said Sunday. "It's time our generation took a stand." "We've been grossly underestimated," co-founder Cowan said last night. "We've set out to change that. We can be the conscience of the country." Chadam said that last year's deficit was equal to the amount of interest paid on the national debt. "The bigger the deficit, the larger the debt, and the less money we'll have to spend on other programs that may be beneficial," he said. "We won't be able to get loans, it affects the economy, the amount of money we'll be making," he added. "We're the only generation that won't have a better standard of living." Todd Lewis, a 17-year-old high school student from Montgomery, Ala., started a Lead . . . or Leave chapter at his high school last fall after seeing Nelson and Cowan on C-Span television. "The wholesale mortgage of our future for political gain really gets my dander up," Lewis said last night. Lewis added that the problems of past generations have had a large impact upon his own. "I think really we aren't defined as much as our parents defined their generation," he said. "The babyboomers, they're huge numbers and have had a disproportionatly large impact on the evolution of American society. "When this was coupled with the sort of reckless activism of the 60s, you had a welfare state which led to huge amounts of crime and a huge divorce rate, resulting in our genereration being the first to be worse educated than our parents," he added. Cowan said he is afraid of what the economy is doing to the younger generations. "The country's priorities are in trouble," he said. "A working age couple with a child making $30,000 a year pays $7,100 in taxes. An elderly couple making $30,000 pays $900. We're tilted away from future generations." One of Lead . . . or Leave's goals is to put pressure on government officials to reduce the influence of special interests in Washington. On February 17, Lead . . . or Leave held a rally protesting the deficit in front of the American Association for Retired Persons Washington headquarters -- one of the groups at the top of Lead . . . or Leave's hit list because they feel older generations have benefitted at the expense of future ones through programs like Social Security. Peter Ashkenaz, spokesperson for the AARP, said that Lead . . . or Leave's targeting of social security is "irresponsible." In an op-ed piece in The New York Times in February, Cowan and Nelson called Social Security "a generational scam" and proposed raising the retirement age, taxing benefits, and reducing cost-of-living increases for retirees to reduce the deficit. Ashkenaz said that while AARP is concerned about the deficit reduction, the organization does not consider reductions in programs such as Social Security as solutions. Ashkenaz said that he feels that the rising cost of health care is the cause of the enormous debt. Wharton sophomore Adam Sloan became involved with Lead . . . or Leave after he read about it in U.S. News and World Report. He said that he is considering starting a chapter at the University. "I feel stongly about political activism," Sloan said. "So many people are apathetic." "We're spending a lot of money now in the wrong places," he added. "I don't think anyone realizes how big the debt is. The interest is 14 percent of our budget, and that money could be going to so many good causes. "If we can bite the bullet now, we can open up money in the future," Sloan added.