Virginia Participates in National Town Hall

The event titled, Our Budget our Economy, drew a total thirty five hundred participants in cities across the country, connecting with each other via satellite.

The groups were tasked with deciding on multiple options to strengthen the economy and reduce the federal deficit including spending cuts and tax adjustments.

Joe Goldman is the Vice President of Citizen Engagement for America Speaks, the non-partisan, non-profit group which organized the event.

Goldman: Across the board, the messages that people had to say and they wanted to deliver had to do with, ‘We’re willing to make tough choices, we’re willing to make tough decisions, Congress we want you to do so as well.’

Some of the key proposals preferred by a majority of the participants included:

Reducing spending on health care and non-defense discretionary spending by at least 5%....Raising tax rates on corporate income and those earning more than 1 million dollars….Raising the age for receiving full social security benefits to 69…reducing defense spending by 10-15 percent…and creating a carbon and securities transaction tax.

America speaks used census data to recruit participants matching the socio-economic and political demographics of the country.

Craig Carper, WCVE News, Capitol Square