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Join us on Wednesday March 11 at UNH-Durham for a nonpartisan panel discussion on America’s looming fiscal crisis, featuring federal and state experts. The national debt is reaching historic heights and growing at an unsustainable pace. Interest payments on the debt now exceed defense spending. Social Security and Medicare benefits are at risk.  And, for the first time ever, all three major credit rating agencies have downgraded U.S. government securities, citing the country’s failure to address large and growing deficits.  

 What does all this portend for the American economy, critical government programs and taxes?  What will it take to make necessary changes, especially during such politically divided times? We’ll explore these and other questions -- and take your questions and comments. Rudman Center Community Engagement Director Laura Knoy will moderate the discussion. 

The event is a partnership between the Concord Coalition, the Rudman Center at UNH-Law, and the Carsey School at UNH-Durham.  It will take place from 6:00 - 7:30 pm in the Sunroom of Huddleston Hall, 73 Main Street, Durham.   For those who cannot get to Durham, there will be live-stream viewing of the discussion in Room 282 on the law school campus. 

Want a more interactive experience?  Join Principles and Priorities, an interactive budget simulation from 4:30 – 5:30, during which participants step into the role of Members of Congress and work together to build their own fiscally responsible 10-year federal budget. In small, randomized groups they will work together to address pressing issues, including national security, healthcare, and tax reform and make tough decisions as they try to reduce deficits or stabilize the national debt. This eye-opening experience will spark thoughtful debate and demonstrate that every choice has consequences for the future of our country.  

Refreshments will be served between the budget simulation and the expert panel discussion. 

Registration is required.   Register  for one or both of these events by March 10. 

Panelists:

Carolyn Bourdeaux

. Carolyn Bourdeaux 

Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux is the Executive Director of Concord Coalition and Concord Coalition Action Fund, where she is building a grassroots movement to advocate for fiscal responsibility, including working to balance the federal budget and cut the $38 trillion national debt. Dr. Bourdeaux served as a Democratic Member of Congress from Georgia from 2021-2022, where she led bipartisan efforts to advance solutions to our nation’s fiscal challenges through responsible budgeting reform and requiring Congress to pay for programs. Dr. Bourdeaux is an expert in national, state and local public finance, with an extensive resume in the academic space and Georgia state government. 

Dennis Lockhart

Dennis Lockhart

Dennis Lockhart’s career includes time in the private sector, academia, and government.

From 2007 to 2017 he was president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. In this role, Lockhart served on the Federal Reserve’s chief monetary policy body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).  He is currently a distinguished professor-of-the-practice in the Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. He serves on a number of for-profit company boards and non-profit boards and advisory councils.

Before becoming a central banker, Lockhart was a member of the faculty of Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service where he chaired the Masters program concentrations in global commerce and finance and international business–government relations.   

He also was an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Simultaneous with these teaching roles, he was chairman of  the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds, a sponsor of emerging private equity funds. 

At the beginning of his career, Lockhart held various positions, both international and domestic, with Citicorp/Citibank (now Citigroup). He worked in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Iran, New York, and Atlanta.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith

Dr. Andrew Smith is the Director of the ����ֱ�� Survey Center, a non-partisan academic survey research organization.  He has more than 40 years’ experience in academic survey research and has been Director of the UNH Survey Center since 1999.   Dr. Smith is also Professor of Practice in Political Science in the UNH Department of Political Science where his teaching and research have focused on survey methodology, elections, and public policy.  He is the author, with David Moore, of The First Primary: New Hampshire’s Outsize Role in Presidential Nominations.

Dr. Smith is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and is past President of its New England Chapter.  He served on the AAPOR Task Force on 2020 Pre-Election Polling.  Dr. Smith is also a founding member and past President of the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations (AASRO).  

Moderator:

Laura Knoy

Laura Knoy

Laura Knoy the founding host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s “The Exchange”, a live daily call-in program which ran for 25 years. During that time, Knoy interviewed dozens of presidential candidates, hosted numerous political debates and NHPR's election night coverage. She moderated thousands of conversations about important topics including education, the economy, and the environment. Knoy stepped down from the show in 2021, and is a sought-after speaker, moderator, interviewer and narrator. In the fall of 2022, she joined the Rudman Center at UNH-Franklin Pierce ����ֱ�� as Director of Community Engagement. She is host of the law school’s podcast The Legal Impact. And she recently published her first novel, The Shopkeeper of Alsace.