Website: http://www.concordcoalition.org

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29  -- The following was released today by the Concord Coalition:

The Concord Coalition has placed a full-page advertisement
in this Sunday's New York Times (October 1, 2000) offering voters
hard facts and five questions to ask the candidates about Social
Security reform.

The ad is signed by Concord Coalition Co-Chairs, former Senators
Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), and Concord
Coalition President Peter G. Peterson, former Secretary of
Commerce. The full text of the ad, including five charts, is now
available on Concord's web site at http://www.concordcoalition.org, under
"what's new." Excerpts from the ad follow:

"To the American voter: We at The Concord Coalition believe
that an honest debate over Social Security reform ought to be at
the center of this year's presidential campaign. Thus far, it has
not been. The two candidates acknowledge the need for Social
Security reform, but the only bottom-line changes they talk about
are benefit expansions. They are avoiding the real challenge,
which is to make the program affordable and sustainable in a much
older America. The Concord Coalition offers you, the American
voter, the following facts and questions to ask the candidates.

1. Every official projection shows that senior benefits,
including Social Security, will claim a ballooning share of federal
spending in the decades to come. What concrete measures do you
propose to prevent these benefits from crowding out other spending?

2. What is your plan for redeeming Social Security's trust-fund
IOUs after 2015, and does it rely on spending cuts, tax increases,
or borrowing?

3. How do the middle-class tax cuts you're now pushing square
with the enormous tax hikes that will soon be needed to pay for all
the benefits that have been promised to seniors?

4. Given what's projected for the future of Social Security, do
you think it's responsible to assure working Americans that they
will retire with all of their promised benefits -- and maybe more --
without any increase in anyone's contributions?

5. Over the next 75 years, future Social Security deficits are
projected to outweigh future Social Security surpluses in today's
dollars by more than 20 to 1. How will your plan prevent a massive
increase in federal debt?

These perspectives do not encompass, by any means, all the
issues raised by Social Security reform. But The Concord Coalition
believes they do provide an honest framework for debating the
transformation that America's largest and oldest benefit program
must undergo in order to fulfill its vital mission in the new
century. You, the American voter, must choose. By facing up to
genuine Social Security reform, you can compel the candidates to
address the aging challenge while the economy is booming, the
budget is in surplus, and the demographics are
favorable. Or you can allow the candidates to engage in denial and
diversion until the window of opportunity closes."

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The Concord Coalition is a nonpartisan, grass roots organization
dedicated to balanced federal budgets and generationally
responsible fiscal policy. The organization does not endorse,
support or oppose candidates for public office or political
parties.