15 Years and $13 Trillion in Debt Later, A Grassroots Campaign For ‘One More Vote’ Starts Anew

Washington, D.C. (September 7, 2010) – The Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) today is announcing the launch of the “One More Vote” campaign and its accompanying website OneMoreVote.org, designed as a grassroots-driven, online enlistment of activists across America focused on pressuring Congress and the administration to enact fundamental spending and budget reforms and change the wasteful tax, borrow and spend policies currently part of the culture in Washington, DC. 

The One More Vote campaign is built on a foundation of both grassroots and legislative advocacy: activists become participants and supporters of the “Your Vote, Your Voice” coalition focused on registering spending and budget reforms as a top priority with lawmakers in Washington, while also presenting common-sense reforms that require a balanced federal budget and higher vote thresholds when raising existing taxes, imposing new taxes or raising the federal debt limit.

The One More Vote campaign name and concept is a nod to the last visible public battle over budget and spending reforms in Congress in 1995 and 1997: the Balanced Budget Amendment reform effort, a measure that fell just one vote short of passage.

CFIF leaders who designed the One More Vote campaign stressed the importance of the activist nature of the effort, given the growing angst among everyday Americans fed-up with out-of-control budget and spending policies in Washington.

“According to expert estimates, our nation’s debt of $13 trillion will skyrocket to more than $20 trillion by the year 2020, or sooner” said Jeff Mazzella, CFIF’s President.  “The fiscal policies being pursued by Congress and the administration only make matters worse.  President Obama’s budgets are projected to run up more debt than all other presidents in American history – from George Washington to George W. Bush – combined. Americans are angry with the status quo, ready to take action and ready to pressure Congress with budget principles that individual taxpayers already apply to themselves.”

The One More Vote effort lays the groundwork for real and meaningful legislation and allows voters and individual activists to become citizen cosponsors of the One More Vote agenda focused on reforming out-of-control spending policies and saving America from economic ruin.

The One More Vote agenda includes what CFIF is calling “The 60% Solution” reform package, which calls for a Constitutional Amendment requiring:

• A federal balanced budget annually;
• A 60% vote, in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, to raise the debt ceiling; and
• A 60% vote, in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, to increase taxes or impose new taxes.

Through OneMoreVote.org, individual Americans are participants in the reform process by learning more about The 60% Solution, signing on as a citizen cosponsors and contacting Congress to urge their support for The 60% Solution.

“The 60% Solution agenda achieves the Balanced Budget Amendment’s goal of keeping government spending under control, without leaving a back door open to tax hikes. It would put the brakes on Washington’s entrenched policies of tax, borrow and spend, while providing the flexibility necessary during genuine national emergencies, such as natural disasters or war.  All we need is One More Vote,” concluded Mazzella.

One More Vote is a government accountability project of the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF), a constitutional and free market advocacy organization that has engaged and activated hundreds of thousands of activists and supporters nationwide.

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Contact:
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703-535-5836