Presentations and Program: USFactsFirst - Joe Coons
Our own Joseph Coons was introduced by Debbie Ahl. Joe has recently completed a book, entitled “USFactsFirst,” which is described as a “fact-filled guide to the issues facing America in politics, the economy, finance, government, crime, education, health care & the media.” Joe’s book is intended to be non-partisan and informative, providing important, basic, and broad data, from which readers can reach their own conclusions. The book covers 15 subject areas, but Joe’s program focused on just two: the national debt and income taxes.
Joe was inspired to write his book because he was sick of the inaccuracy and bias of media reporting. He set some parameters for his research: 1) sources must be reliable and politics-free; 2) time periods must be long enough to see trends; and 3) the BIG influences in each area are what matter most. Joe ended up with a huge spreadsheet, with around 14,000 data points.
Joe first focused on national debt. Every president since Eisenhower has had a deficit over his tenure. Adjusted for inflation, deficits only started to go up in the early 1980s. For 30 years prior to about 1982, the real debt was quite constant, even through wars and recession.
Showing the Club various charts from his book, Joe showed that changes to the income tax rates correlate to significant income equality, as well as ballooning national debt. Joe showed how the reduction in income tax rates benefitted the top earners much more so than the rest of the citizenry.
Joe then talked a little about the recent “Great Recession.” He showed the Club a slide that showed the real cost of the “Great Recession.” Looking at 2007 through 2012, Joe showed the projected change in GDP if no recession occurred (based upon average GDP growth of 2.86% per year, 61 years, 1947-2007). In effect, the country fell behind by $8.35 trillion dollars. This is the equivalent of the entire country’s economy shutting down for half a year.
In Joe’s book, unlike in his Rotary program, he doesn’t share his conclusions with the reader, but rather, just poses questions based on the data. Joe’s hope is to inspire thoughtful, fact-based discussions on the various issues addressed in his book.
Joe then took questions from Club members.
A link to more information on USFactsFirst can be found here.
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