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The Problem with Government is the Problem

Date: October 30, 2009

Time: 10:30 AM

Economic Policy Institute
1333 H Street NW
Suite 300, East Tower
Washington, DC

In the last several months, Americans' distrust of government has transformed from a sense of unease operating in the background of political discourse, to a driving force behind raucous town hall meetings, Tea Party protests, and even inappropriate outbreaks in Congress. Major reform proposals including health care and financial regulation are forcefully challenged largely and simply because they appear to call for greater government involvement. Suddenly, this chronic state of public distrust has acute implications for the viability of public initiatives and the political future of a Congressional majority. The promise of change presented by the Administration equally hangs in the balance.

Demos, AmericaSpeaks, the Economic Policy Institute, and The American Prospect invite you to a panel discussion with top political thinkers and writers to discuss the increasingly visible public distrust of government, its effects on the ability to find public solutions to pressing challenges, and what can be done to counter it. Demos' Public Works program will present its research and field-work findings about how this public perception challenge can be met, and will moderate a panel of experts offering their own insight into this issue, its implications, and solutions.

Moderators:

 

Dianne Stewart is Director of Public Works: The Demos Center for the Public Sector. Public Works has been working to build informed and effective constituencies across the country for the public structures necessary to achieve the common good. Prior to joining Demos, Dianne was the Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas and worked in state government and in the private sector on public policy issues affecting low-income families.

 

 

Patrick Bresette is Associate Director of Public Works at Demos and has been the lead consultant and trainer with key partners in states and in special constituencies that are working to build support for an empowered and effective public sector. Previously, Patrick was the Associate Director of the Texas Center for Public Policy Priorities and worked in the Texas Legislature.

 

 

Speakers:

Mark Schmitt is the Executive Editor of The American Prospect. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he helped to develop a new initiative on The Next Social Contract, a cross-cutting effort to find the underlying principles and policies appropriate to the emerging economy. Prior to this, he was a program director at the Open Society Institute in New York for seven years, and served as policy director for Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, as well as a senior adviser on Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign. He is an expert on budget and tax policy, reform of the political process, and the history and role of ideas in politics.

Jeff Madrick is the editor of Challenge magazine and former contributing economics columnist to The New York Times. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. His most recent book is The Case for Big Government. He is also the author of Why Economies Grow, The End of Affluence and Taking America. A former NBC News correspondent and WNBC-TV news commentator, he is the winner of an Emmy Award. He has contributed to The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Nation, and Newsday, among many other publications.

 

Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer is the Founder and President of AmericaSpeaks. Committed to reinvigorating American Democracy by engaging citizens in the public decision-making that most impacts their lives, AmericaSpeaks is a nationally recognized leader and innovator in the field of deliberative democracy and democratic renewal. Dr. Lukensmeyer and AmericaSpeaks have won numerous awards for their work. Before founding AmericaSpeaks, she worked in several capacities in the federal and Ohio state governments and led her own organizational development and management consulting firm.

 

To RSVP or for more information, click here, or contact Jinny Khanduja at jkhanduja@demos.org or 212.389.1399

With: Dianne Stewart | Patrick Bresette | Marcia Kinsey