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Workshop gave participants a chance to “balance the budget”

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) hosted a federal budget forum in Lewisville, NC on August 23, 2010.  The workshop was conducted in cooperation with the Concord Coalition, a national, non-partisan grassroots organization that has developed a program to foster understanding of the federal budget process. 

“Many taxpayers are very concerned with how the federal budget is drawn up,” Rep. Foxx said.  “This workshop gives local taxpayers an inside look at the budget and let them use their spending priorities to create a model federal budget.”

The Concord Coalition program, Principles & Priorities, teaches participants about the federal budget and provides realistic insight into how some of the policy proposals in today’s news would affect the operations of the federal government. 

Principles & Priorities is an interactive exercise in which participants learn about balancing the federal budget by making many of the same policy decisions that lawmakers face.  Participants will be able to review current spending priorities, suggest principles for the future, and then apply these principles by selecting from several dozen priorities being discussed in Washington.

“With record federal budget shortfalls, fiscal responsibility is more important than ever for the federal government,” Foxx said. “This budget forum promises to help local taxpayers grasp just how much—or sometimes little—goes into creating a federal budget each year.”

By considering issues such as federal spending, taxes, and social programs, participants gained firsthand experience in the complex issues of today's fiscal environment. They then recommended a package of policies to put America on a sound budgetary foundation for the next several years. The workshop concluded with a wrap-up discussion of the budget results and the lessons learned from the exercise.

This event took place on August 23 at the Lewisville Library located at 6490 Shallowford Road in Lewisville, NC and ran from 6:30pm to 8:00 pm.  This event was free to the public.